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'A V 



GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. 



I 



prtntetf at l^t mnihtxiitvi pre^iS. 



GEMS 



OF 



LATIN POETRY, 



WITH 



translations l)g barious ^utjors; 



TO WHICH ARE ADDED 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 



BY 



ANDREW AMOS, Esq, . 

AUTHOR OF 'THE GREAT OYER OF POISONING,' 
NOTES ON FORTESCUE DE LAUDIBUS LEGUM ANGLIJE,' Ac. &c 



CAMBRIDGE: JOHN DEIGHTON. 
LONDON: J. BAIN, 1, HAYMARKET. 

M.DCCC.LI. 



PREFACE 



rFHE following Work is designed for Undergraduates. 

-*- Within a very short period, I have published writ- 
ings, and used strenuous personal exertions for severer 
purposes, connected with organic changes in the admi- 
nistration of national justice* and with the instaura- 
tion of Academical Institutions in conformity with the 
present exigencies of Society f . These works may 
atone for a brief literary delassement at the abode of 
my Alma Mater, my return to whom, after the turmoil 
of public life, feels to me like the inhaling of a second 
spring. 

To my young readers, (many of whom are the sons 
of my friends, and are pursuing at Cambridge the 
honourable footsteps of their distinguished Fathers), 
it will be a relief to hear that I do not propose to 
vex their attentions by a selection of Gems from Virgil, 
Horace, Ovid, Juvenal, or Persius |. The beauties of 

* On the Expediency of admitting the Testimony of Parties to Suits. 
A Sheet of Advice to County Court Judges. 

t Introductory Lectui-e on the Laws of England, delivered at the 
University of Cambridge. Letter to Dr Whewell on Education at the 
Universities. 

X These were the only Latin poets read at Eton when the Author 
was an alumnus there ; Juvenal and Persius were not read in school, but 
occasionally with tutors. Gray writes to West, that he first opened 
Silius Italicus in the Alps. During the Author's undergraduateship, 
many Etonians were indebted for their first acquaintance with Lucretius 
to their College Deans, who shewed a preference to this author in 
their impositions, because he was a stranger. 



VI PREFACE. 

these authors are all familiar to most Undergraduates of 
promise. But I conceive that there are many Gems 
of " purest ray serene " to be discovered in the works 
of Authors not commonly read, or even looked into at 
Schools or in the University. I feel sanguine that I 
may present a collection of these to the notice of Under- 
graduates, which may tend to implant in their minds 
a predilection for what is noble, and a detestation of 
what is base in conduct, a good-will towards mankind, 
an admiration and reverence for the works of the Deity ; 
or which, at least, by the creations of fancy, or even the 
frolics of the Muses, may wean the mind from selfish 
ruminations, the idolatries of fashion, or those " eating 
cares," that are the lot of humanity. 

There are several causes why the excursions of 
Undergraduates among the Latin Poets have usually 
been confined to a few authors. It unfortunately hap- 
pens that the writings of nearly every one of the most 
admired Poets of the Augustan aera contain passages 
which the eye of youth should never see ! But if we 
deviate from this flourishing period, and take, for an 
example, Catullus, as that of an Author before Augustus, 
or Martial, as that of a Post-Augustan Poet, we shall 
find, indeed, occasionally, in their works, the most feli- 
citous thoughts, conveyed in the most fascinating expres- 
sions: but the objectionable filth which, at intervals, 
offends the moral sense in Horace or Ovid, is in Catullus 
and Martial the ordinary current of ideas, the phrase- 
ology most familiar to their generally polluted, though 
sometimes honied tongues. Ovid, Catullus, Martial, and, 
we may add with regret, the refined Pliny, take pains to 



PREFACE. vu 

expressly avow a most reprehensible doctrine, that, 
although a Poet ought to be as moral as other people in 
his life, he can never deserve blame for immoral verses*. 
In other words, that if a Poet had been as immodest 
as Rochester, and as beastly as Swift, (both angels of 
light as compared with the Classics), he might lay a 
flattering unction to his soul, that he had written 

No line which dying he would wish to blot. 

Such considerations may, in some measure, explain 
an anomaly which defaces the system of modern educa- 
tion. In the higher circles of society, the moral senti- 
ments, the associations of ideas, and the taste of a Man, 
are commonly formed on a close study of the Greek and 
Roman Writers, to which his attention is almost exclu- 
sively devoted till the age of nineteen, and sometimes 
for three or more years beyond; whereas the number 
of Females who can read a Latin book is infinite- 
simally small f ; if, indeed, the Latin tongue be not an 

* In Oldys's Epigrams, a.d. 1727, that editor writes: "We think the 
coarseness and indelicacy of this epigram abundantly atoned for by its 
poignancy of thought and pleasantness of conceit, which justly entitle it 
to a place in our collection." 

t The Author, in his Letter to Dr Whewell, writes : " You have 
placed the immediate practical utility of classical knowledge in a more 
striking point of view than I recollect ever to have contemplated it 
before; and I wish to be understood as not controverting the general 
scope of your observations, whilst I adduce a few grains of allowance, 
with which, I apprehend, they ought to be seasoned. It is really veiy 
gratifying to reflect on the happy family footing on which, it seems,'the 
classically educated mutually stand. They have *a bond of mental 
union,' ' a common store of thoughts, images, and turns of expression,' 
* common intellectual possessions,' ' a community of sentiments arising 
out of the internal constitution of human nature.' They are members 
of a * common human family,' indulging in ' thoughts and expressions of 
thoughts belonging to humanity in general,' ' on which the human mind 



viii PREFACE. 

accomplishment which is sometimes suppressed by the 
Fair Sex, as though it argued a propensity for inter- 
dicted knowledge inherited from their Mother Eve. 

Again, of that large portion of human thought which 
in modern as well as ancient times has been expressed 
in Latin Poetry, how much relates to exploded theories 
and opinions, or to occurrences no longer subjects of 
interest, or of which the traditions are faint and obscure ! 
What a mass, for example, of unintelligible and value- 
less rubbish is to be found in the works of Lucretius; 
and yet, from amid the gloom of his bulky philosophical 
poem, he occasionally darts forth rays of genius, than 
which there is nothing brighter or more exalted to be 
met with in the whole range of Classical Literature. 
So the most eminent Poets of Modern Italy, who, during 
a long period, composed in Latin verse, with a success 
approaching to rivalry with the Augustan Writers, have 
expressed many thoughts worthy of meditation in every 
age ; nevertheless, there will, perhaps, be found scarcely 

delights to dwell, and which are sympathized with throughout the world/ 
And this liaison is made the more interesting and tender, by reason of 
the classical languages being a * vehicle of emotion,' not less than of 
thought. There is one drawback to these agreeable visions, and that is 
a very serious one : — The Female Sex are not, in the present day, (to 
speak generally,) brought up among the classics. Time was, when the 
world was in possession of a Lady Jane Grey, and, in later days, of a 
Madame Dacier. But I fear that ladies of this stamp afford a melan- 
choly parallel to that bird of which the species is known to have existed 
upon earth within human memory, but of which there is now no longer 
any living specimen, ... I fear that we must be satisfied, by the aid of 
classics, to have a bond of mental union with only half of human nature, 
even among the educated classes ; to have common intellectual posses- 
sions only with half (and to our sorrow, the less eligible half) of humanity; 
and that we must seek some other ' vehicle of emotions,* and employ 
some other go-betweens than the classic authors, in our intercourse with 
the ladies of the human family.*' 






PREFACE. IX 

one page out of a hundred in their works which is 
calculated to afford edification or pleasure to a modern 
reader. Perhaps there is not a single Undergraduate 
at Cambridge, who knows more even about Vida (one 
of the most extolled Italian writers of Latin Poetry) 
than the lines, 

Immortal Vida ! on whose honour'd brow 
The poet's bays, and critic's ivy grow : 
Cremona now shall ever boast thy name, 
As next in place to Mantua, next in fame! 

It must be confessed also that the search after ideas 
at our Universities is confined within a narrow circle. 
There is little encouragement, or indeed (practically 
speaking) permission for the prosecution of more than 
two branches of study; and those, perhaps, not pro- 
perly occupying the first place in the minds of students 
destined for general life, who have exceeded the age 
of twenty *. But even in one of these branches, that 

* When classical studies first obtained their present predominance 
in our Universities, there was little of valuable information to be acquired 
from other sources ; students were sent to college five years earlier than 
at present ; and there was not the like rush of well-educated, though not 
classically-educated, persons into every avenue leading to emolument or 
honour. Milton, even at a period before many important sources of 
modern information had been opened, thanks his father for having 
persuaded him to extend his poetical studies beyond the narrow limits of 
a Classical Tripos : 

Tuo, Pater optime, sumptu, 
Cum mihi Romulese patuit facundia linguae, 
Et Latii Veneres, et, quae Jovis ora decebant, 
Grandia magniloquis elata vocabula Graiis : 
Addere suasisti quos jactat Gallia flores; 
Et quam degeneri novus Italus ore loquelam 
Fundit, barbaricos testatus voce triumphos ; 
Quseque Palsestinus loquitur mysteria vates. 
And if Milton had lived to the present day, he would not have passed 
over the muses of Germany without the " meed " of a " melodious '* 
encomium. 

b 



X PREFACE. 

of Classics, the student's attention is less directed to 
the acquirement of rules for conduct, or of arts to win 
mankind, than to struggles with difficult constructions, 
and the chirping of metres and accents, or to imitating 
with servile and awkward pinion the flights of ancient 
eagles or swans. It may, perhaps, be a question whe- 
ther it be so necessary as formerly to rear a succession 
of Scaligers, Bentleys, and Porsons ; now that, after a 
running fight for centuries, most of the monsters of 
corrupt or interpolated texts, or of passages that mock 
all meaning and sense, may be supposed to have been 
vanquished by the labours of those literary Herculeses 
or Giant-killers. But there can be no doubt, as regards 
Students designed for other than a scholastic life, that 
something of the philological astuteness which is now 
exacted or encouraged, may reasonably be dispensed 
with, if they be thereby enabled to make a more excur- 
sive range in quest of ideas, to know more of what the 
Ancients wrote about, and to know something, besides 
Mathematics, of what has transpired in the world for 
the last thousand years and upwards. 

It is hoped that although some accomplished Under- 
graduates may find nothing new in these pages, yet that 
there may be a number of others, who may reap benefit 
from my placing before them what I have dug up, as 
it were, from a literary Pompeii or Herculaneum, con- 
sisting of selections from books, which, from one or 
other of the causes above assigned, are not commonly 
placed in the hands of youth. They are curiosities, with 
regard to which I have endeavoured to perform the 
part of a literary pioneer, clearing away the rubbish 



PREFACE. xi 

with which they were covered, and divesting them 
of a load of matters replete with depraved taste, false 
wit, bad reasoning, obscenities, outrages on human 
nature, and impieties; from none of which vices were 
the Latian Muses, in their best days, averse, and amidst 
which, in their decline, they were wont to revel. 

With regard to the Poetical Translations in this 
Work, they have been collected from a multitude of 
sources, ancient and modern. The names of the trans- 
lators are not commonly given, partly because they are 
not known, or the references to them have been lost, 
and partly because it has been thought that the Reader 
would not care to be informed on the subject. The 
Author's share in this part of the work has been very 
trifling indeed, and chiefly confined to modifications for 
the avoidance of gross literary blunders, or startling 
eccentricities of diction and rhyme*. For the prose 
translations, except some from Pliny by Melmoth, the 
Author is responsible. French translations or imita- 
tions have been adopted sometimes for their own merit, 
and sometimes from the demerit of the Author, who 
yielded to the temptation of saving himself trouble. 

As regards the translations in general, they are not 

* Several of those poetical translations, which are of the more humble 
pretensions, are by Elphinstone, who translated all Martial. The list of 
subscribers to his book is one of the most imposing ever published. The 
work was apparently a long time in hand, for there is a numerous list of 
subscribers, by way of postscript, who, Elphinstone writes, are " already 
called to superior enjoyment;" thus modestly admitting tha,t their 
enjoyment in heaven might be superior to that of reading his poetry. 
He addresses his departed patrons thus : 

Hail, hallowed friends ! whose names shall never die. 
May ours, with yours, be registered on high ! 

h2 




xii PREFACE. 

a dainty dish to set before those Classical Scholars whose 
object is to solve difficulties of construction, and to 
study not the sentiments of Latin authors, but the Latin 
Language*. All that has been attempted has been to 
exhibit in an English dress the general scope of a 
Poet's ideas; without aiming at that closeness of re- 
semblance which would be requisite in an Academical 
Examination. Many persons, however, who are capable 
of relishing the beauties of the Classical Authors, are 
not such proficients in the Latin tongue, (especially as 
used by Poets who do not belong to the Augustan 
period), but that a slight assistance towards the com- 
prehension of a Latin piece of composition, would make 
all the difference between their taking it up to read, or 
not. Now although the lights here afforded to such 
readers may now and then be deemed ignes fatui, it 
will often happen that an individual may possess such a 
competent knowledge of Latinity as to perceive where 
a Translator is a blind guide, and at the same time 
to feel indebted for his assistance where his own sense 
may assure him that the way has been correctly pointed 
out. If there be any Readers of this book who are not 
acquainted with the Latin language at all, they will be 
spared that exasperation which may be expected to 
arise in the minds of classical scholars at the sight of 
literary blunders committed by one whose life has 

* The Author's College Tutor was often not content with consuming 
half the lecture hour in laying prostrate all the difficulties to be found 
in the Commentators about some unimportant matter, (as, for example, 
the artful dodge of some scampish Heathen Divinity), but would cast his 
eyes round the table, and say, with a chuckle, " Gentlemen, I hare found 
another difficulty /" 



PREFACE. XIII 

been spent among men, and not with books; whilst, 
notwithstanding such faults, they may be edified with 
many opinions, sentiments, and descriptions, which are 
new to them, and which, though in particular instances 
perhaps inaccurate as translations, may be in general 
calculated to elevate the mind, and inspire it with 
philanthropic dispositions. 

With regard to the Notes and Illustrations of this 
Work, it is hoped that they may impart an additional 
interest to the Gems. Sometimes they may shew how 
much several of the most esteemed English Authors have 
been indebted to Classical sources for numerous bril- 
liant passages in their works ; sometimes, by the process 
of association of ideas, they may render the treasuring 
of the original Gems in the memory a more easy and 
agreeable task; and, generally, it is trusted that they 
may tend to supply a desideratum in University Educa- 
tion, by directing attention to English Literature, 
modern events, and objects of daily interest, in a point 
of view not conflicting with a regard to the beauties of 
the Classics, but conspiring wdth them to imprint more 
deeply on the heart the sentiments of Nature, and the 
dictates of Virtue. 

If this Work should, perchance, attract more notice 
than is anticipated on the part of Undergraduates, I may 
be induced to send to the Press another set of Gems 
which I have already in my literary cabinet, regarding 
more particularly those shrewd remarks of the Latin 
Poets concerning ancient institutions, the conduct of 
life, the nicer shades and varieties of character, and 
the intercourse of society. It appeared to me that these 



XIV PREFACE. 

subjects, although of greater interest than any thing 
here offered to persons experienced in the ways of the 
world, would not be so attractive to Undergraduates as 
those which I have selected on the present occasion. 

My intimate friends know how I have usually con- 
fined the lighter lucubrations of my leisure hours to a 
few printed copies for private circulation : that I have 
deviated from my former course on the present occasion, 
is because it appeared to me that an opportunity was 
offered of scattering some good seeds on a very prolific 
soil, and not from an ignorance that Cambridge was as 
remarkable as ancient Rome for Rhinoceros' noses. 

Majores nusquam ronchi, juvenesque, senesque, 
Et pueri nasum Rhinocerontis habent. 

My Undergraduate friends will, however, kindly bear 
in mind the adage, " Never to look a gift horse in the 
mouth." A work like the present can never be expected 
to pay a quarter of its expences ; especially as there is 
no likelihood of my having an opportunity of setting 
questions out of it at any Academical examination. 
I shall, however, consider myself richly compensated, if 
these Gems shall instil into the minds of youth any 
new incentives to virtue, or even impart to them any 
moments of literary gratification. 

Downing College, Cambridge, 
March, 1851 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 

PAGE 

I. Pope Julius casting into the Tiber the Keys of St Peter 1 

n. Death of Xavier 3 

III. Arnauld's Heart conveyed to Port Royal, and there 

enshrined ...... 4 

rv. Moliere's Death ...... 5 

V. Death of the Emperor Otho . . . .6 

VI. Festus's Suicide 8 

Vn. Death of Politian 11 

Vm. The Branding of Prynne 12 

IX. Message from Philip II. to Queen Elizabeth . 13 

Queen Elizabeth's Reply .... ib. 

X. Presentation of Henry VIIL's Book to Pope Leo . 14 

XI. Gunpowder Plot ...... ib. 

XII. Franklin's Snatches 16 

XTTT. Arria's Non dolet! (It is not painful !) . . 17 

XrV. Death of Porcia, wife of Brutus .... 18 

XV. Defence of Syracuse by Archimedes, and his death 19 

XVI. Hannibal Swearing enmity to the Romans . . 21 

XV II. Regulus's Tortures in a Cask . . . . 24 
XVin. West's Cough 25 

XIX. West on Gray's Return from his Travels . . 26 

XX. Laberius's Prologue ...;.. 27 

XXI. Mucins Scaevola 29 

XXII. The FaU of Rufinus 32 

XXin. Cruelties of the Roman Amphitheatre . . 34 



XVI 



CONTENTS. 



XXrv. On the Women who fought with Wild Beasts in the 
Amphitheatre ...... 

XXV. Naumachise ...... 

XXVI. Cato refusing to consult the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon 

XXVII. Cato at the Floral Games 

XXVIII. Csesar Passing the Rubicon 
XXIX. Death of Pompey .... 

XXX. Suttees 

XXXI. Treatment of Slaves 

XXXII. Martial's Manumission of a Dying Slave 
XXXin. Assassination of Cicero . 
XXXrV. Attempted Murder of Marius 

XXXV. Iphigeneia's Sacrifice 

XXXVI. Marseilles' Bishop : his Conduct during the Plague . 

XXXVII. Hadrian's Parting Address to his Soul, when dying 

XXXVIII. Metamorphosis of Matsys. , ... 
XXXIX. StDunstan 

XL. Sir Thomas More's Relation of a Monk thrown over- 
board to hghten a ship of a crew's sins . 

XLI. The Miracle at Cana . . . , . 



36 
ib. 
37 
41 
42 
46 
49 
51 
63 
55 
67 
68 
61 
62 
64 



66 
67 



CHAPTER II. 

BIOGRAPHY. 

I. Linacre ....... 68 

II. Dr Pitcairn. (Invitation to a Ghost.) . . .69 

in. Dante .72 

IV. Michael Angelo. (Inscriptions on his Monument.) . 73 

V. Raphael 74 

VI. Annibal Caracci . . . . . . 75 

VII. Poussin ....;.. 76 

VIII. Frascatoro 77 

IX. The Antiquary Vaillant ..... ib. 

X. Parkyns, the Wrestler 78 



CONTENTS. 



xvu 



* 




PAGE 


XL 


Aretino ....... 


79 


XTT. 


Mirandola ...... 


. 80 


XTTL 


Nero ........ 


ib. 


XIV. 


Swift 


. 81 


XV. 


Waller and Sacharissa . . . . . 


82 


XVI. 


Cromwell, (by Locke.) .... 


. 84 


XVll. 


James II. ...... . 


85 


xvm. 


Machiavel ...... 


. ib. 


XIX. 


Ascham ....... 


86 


XX. 


Silius Italicus, his pious cares for the Memories 


of 




Virgil and Cicero .... 


87 


XXI. 


Lucan ....... 


. 89 


XXTI. 


LeoX 


91 


XXill. 


Pope Alexander VI. ..... 


. 93 


XXIV. 


Csesar Borgia ..... 


95 


XXV. 


Lucretia Borgia ..... 


. 97 


XXVI. 


Luther ...... 


98 


XXVII. 


Mary Queen of Scots. (Prayer repeated by her 


m- 




mediately before her Execution.) . 


99 


XXVIII. 


Lady Jane Grey ..... 


. 100 


XXIX. 


Milton ' 


ib. 


XXX. 


Milton compared with Homer and Virgil 


. 101 


XXXI. 


Milton and his Father .... 


102 


XXXII. 


Milton rusticated, perhaps flogged 


. 103 


XXXIII. 


Milton burnt ..... 


104 


XXXIV. 


Spenser ....... 


. 106 


XXXV. 


Nsevius . . . . . . 


107 


XXXVI. 


Nigrina. A Funeral Urn. 


. 108 


XXXVII. 


Antonius Primus. Life doubled. 


109 


XXXVIII 


Martial and Pliny . 


111 


^ X \1X. 


Nerva ....... 


. 113 


XL. 


Sir Thomas More ..... 


117 


XLL 


Sir Thomas More and his Children 


. 118 


XTJI. 


Coke and Bacon ..... 


119 


XLin. 


Sir Edward Coke's Diary .... 


. 120 


XLIV. 


Sh: Edward Coke's Kitchen 


122 


XLV. 


King James I. (his Visit to Cambridge) 


. ib. 




Present of his Basilicon Doron . 


123 




i^ni 


CONTENTS. 


pIilGe 


XL VI. 


Cowley ........ 


123 


XLVII. 


Cowley on his own Death .... 


126 


XLvm. 


The Old Man of Verona 


127 


XTJX. 


Coryat's Crudities ...... 


129 


L. 


Scorpus the Charioteer ..... 


130 


LI. 


Paris the Pantomime ..... 


131 


LII. 


Latinus the Mime. ...... 


132 


Lin. 


Csesar and Pompey 


134 


LIV. 


Cato . . . . . . . . 


138 


LV. 


Epicurus . . . . . . 


140 


LVL 


Catullus at his Brother's Tomb .... 


142 


LVII. 


Catullus and Cicero ..... 


143 


LVIII. 


Young Torquatus 


144 


LIX. 


Quintilian and Martial ..... 


145 


LX. 


Cotta. (Who never knew a day's illness.) 


148 


LXI. 


Sabidus. (Disliked, without knowing why.) 


150 


LXII. 


Sulpicia. (The Model of « Grace" for Milton's Eve.) 


151 


Lxm. 


Zoilus. (Unfa,vourable Physiognomy.) 


153 


LXIV. 


Ligurinus the Table-Talker .... 


156 


LXV. 


Canius the Laugher ..... 


158 


LXVL 


Aeon and Leonilla. (Each beautiful, each one-eyed.) 


160 


LXVIL 


Lais. (Her Looking-Glass). .... 


161 


LXVIII. 


Glaucia. (His Premature Death.) 


ib. 


LXIX. 


Lascaris ....... 


163 


LXX. 


Augustus . . . . . 


ib. 


LXXI. 


A Grammarian of Ghent .... 


164 


LXXII. 


Nicholas. An Egotist . . . . 


166 


Lxxm. 


Hobson ....... 


167 


LXXIV. 


Fox's Vale to Eton . . . . . 


168 



CONTENTS. XIX 

CHAPTER III. 
PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 

PAGE 

L Venice . . . ' . . . . 171 

II. The Grande Chartreuse 173 

HI. Sirmio . 176 

IV. Vesuvius 179 

V. Mount St Bernard 186 

VI. The Alps 189 

VII. Fsesulse 192 

VIII. Bai£e . .194 

IX. A Formian Villa 195 

X. A Tiburtine Villa 205 

XL Domitian's Fishpond . . . . . 210 

XII. The Hot Springs near Cicero's Academy . .211 

XIII. The Po, with its Mythology .... 213 

XIV. The Po frozen 214 

XV. Building Account between Domitian and Jupiter . 216 

XVI. The Palatine Mount 218 

XVII. Colisseum 219 

XVIII. Nero's Golden House, Titus's Baths, and Claudian's 

Portico 221 

XIX. Concourse of all Nations at Rome . . . 224 

XX. America . . . . . . . . 225 

XXI. Ancient Sights of London .... 226 

XXII. Drunken Barnab/s Journal ..... 227 
XXIIL Pope's Grotto 230 

XXIV. The Rhine 233 

XXV. Stonehenge 234 

XXVI. On a Crystal containing a drop of water . . 237 
XXVH. Insects in Amber ...... 238 

XXVIII. Phenomenon produced by Snowballs . . . 240 



XX 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE ARTS. 

PAGE 

I. Cromweirs Portrait presented to Queen Christina 242 

II. Portrait of Antonius Primus .... 243 

III. Portrait of Erasmus 244 

IV. Picture of St Bruno, (founder of the Grande Char- 

treuse) ....... 245 

V. Ecce Homo, by Mignard .... 246 

VI. Picture of Marillac, Doctor of the Sorbonne . . 247 

VII. Picture of Shaftesbury 248 

VIII. Picture of Belisarius 250 

IX. Picture of the Resurrection .... 252 

X. Picture of Venus Anadyomene .... 253 

XI. Timomachus's Picture of Medea . . . 254 

XII. Picture of Camomus's Son ..... 258 

XIII. Ancient Picture of a Lap-dog .... 259 

XIV. Picture of Titian, and his Wife, who died in child-bed 260 

XV. Hogarth's Pictures . . . . . .261 

XVI. Encaustic Painting 262 

XVII. Painting in glass of the Nativity . . . .263 

XVIII. Madame Schurmans, (a model in wax) . . 265 
XIX. Tears of a Painter . . . . . . ib. 

XX. Picture of Echo 267 

XXI. TheLaocoon 268 

XXII. The Venus of Cnidos 272 

XXIII. Polycletus's Juno 274 

XXIV. Lysippus' Alexander the Great . . . 275 

XXV. Group of the Statues of Opportunity and Repentance 276 

XXVI. Vindex*s convivial Statue of Hercules . . 278 

XXVII. Statue of Lucretia 281 

XXVm. The Statue of Niobe 283 

XXIX. statue of Domitian as the Mild Jupiter . . . 285 

XXX. statue of Domitian as Hercules . . . 287 

XXXI. ^gis of Domitian 289 

XXXn. Statue of Erasmus 291 



CONTENTS. 



XXI 



XXXIII. A Statue of Victory, at Rome, of which the wings were 

destroyed by lightning 

XXXIV. The Florentine Brutus 

XXXV. Statue of the Duke of Welhngton in front of the Royal 

Exchange ....... 

XXXVI. The Bust of the Duke of Wellington deposited in the 

Library of Eton College 

XXXVII. Madame Langhen's Monument 

XXXVIII. Praxiteles turned Sportsman . . 
XXXIX. Pageant Figure of Queen Elizabeth, as Deborah 

XL. A Statue of Somnus .... 

XLI. Myron's Cow ...... 

XLII. Toreutic Work 

XLIII. On a Toreutic Cup ..... 

XLIV. A Roman Bazaar ..... 

XLV. The Great Tun at Heidelburg 

XL VI. A Tree cut into the shape of a Bear . 
XL VII. Growth of a Man of War from an Acorn 
XLVIIL On a Shepherd's first sight of a Ship . 

XLIX. Fragment of the Ship Argo .... 
L. The Sphere of Archimedes 



292 

ih. 

293 

ih. 

294 

295 

296 

297 

298 

299 

306 

310 

313 

317 

ih. 

318 

319 

323 





CHAPTER V. 






INSCRIPTIONS. 




I. 


Regnard at the Frozen Sea .... 


. 325 


II. 


Selden's House ...... 


ih. 


III. 


Ariosto's House ...... 


. 326 


IV. 


Gil Bias's House 


327 


V. 


Gorhambury, (Inscription over the Entrance Hall) 


. 328 




Inscriptions in a Banqueting House . 


ih. 


VI. 


Emblems ....... 


330 


VII. 


Stadt-house at Delft . . . ... 


. 331 


VIII. 


The Arsenal of Brest . . . 


332 



XXll 



CONTENTS. 



IX. A College of Surgeons, in the form of an Amphitheatre 

X, The Criminal Comi; of the Chastelet 

XI. The Clock of the Palace of Justice . 

XII. Inscriptions at Theobald's in honour of James I. and 

the King of Denmark 

Xin. The Arsenal at Paris .... 

XIV. Orangery at Chantilly 

XV. Milton's Alcove 

XVI. Assignation Seat 

XVII. A Maze 

XVIII. Water-Works at Marly 

XIX. A Grotto near a Stream .... 

XX. The Fountain of the Bridge of Nostre-Dame 

XXI. The Fountain des Quatre Nations, (opposite the 

Louvre) ....... 

XXII. The Fountain of Petits-Peres 

XXIII. The Fountain of La Charite 

XXIV. The Fountain of the Market Maubert 

XXV. The Fountain of the Rue de Richelieu 

XXVI. The Fountain of the Quartier des Financiers 

XXVII. A Fountain, in honour of Queen Anne and the Duke of 

Marlborough ...... 

XXVIII. Baptismal Font at Florence 

XXIX. The Holy Cross 

XXX. A Statue of the Virgin Mary at Rome 

XXXI. The Gate of a Monastery of Black-hooded Friars 

XXXII. A carved Head of St Peter 

XXXIII. Luther's Glass . . . . . 

XXXIV. An^olianHarp 

XXXV. An Organ 

XXXVI. D'Alembert's Treatise on the Winds . 

XXXVII. Devices in Bellenden's book De Statu 

XXXVIII. Medal to Louis XIV. applied to Queen Anne 
XXXIX. Inscriptions by ancient Printers 

XL. A Bottle buried, and dug up on Stella's Birth-day 

XLI. Presentation Cups ..... 

XLII. Ancient Lamp . . . . . 

XLIIL Bells 



PAGP, 

332 
333 



334 
335 
336 

ih. 
337 
338 
339 
340 
ih. 

341 
342 

ih. 
343 
ih. 
ih. 



344 
345 
ih. 
346 
ih. 
347 
ih. 
348 
349 
350 
ih. 
351 
352 
353 
354 
355 
ih. 



CONTENTS. xxiii 

PAGE 

XLIV. Diamond Heart, (presented by Mary Queen of Scots to 

Queen Elizabeth.) 357 

XLV. Satumalian Presents : 

A leathern Roman Travelling-coat . . . 358 

A Dentifrice ...... ib. 

Ivory Writing-tables ..... 359 

A plain Marriage- ring . . . . ib. 

XL VI. Heraldic Arms of the Abbot of Ramsey . . 361 

XLVn. The Lion's Head at Button's .... ib. 

XLVIII. Medals of Queen Elizabeth .... 362 

XLIX. Medal of James IE. and his Queen . , . . 363 
L. Inscriptions at the Entertainment given by the Jesuits 
at Rome in their Seminary, to the Enghsh Ambassa- 
dor of James H. ..... 364 



GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. 



It is proposed to divide this Collection of Gems of Latin Poetry 
into five Chapters : 1. Concerning remarkable Actions and 
Occm-rences — 2. Biography — 3. Places and Natural Pheno- 
mena — 4. The Arts — 5. Inscriptions. 



CHAPTER I. 
REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 



I. 

POPE JULIUS CASTING INTO THE TIBER THE KEYS OF 

ST PETER. 

Cum contra GaUos bellum Papa Julius esset 

Gesturus, sicut fama vetus^ta docet ; 
Ingentes martis turmas contraxit, et urbem 

Egressus, ssevas edidit ore minas. 
Iratusque sacras claves in flumina jecit 

Tybridis, hie urbi pons ubi jungit aquas. 
Inde manu strietum vagina diripit ensem, 

Exelamansque truci talia voee refert. 
'' Hie gladius Pauli nos nune defendet ab hoste, 

Quandoquidem clavis nil juvat ista Petri." 

Julius, as fame reports, resolved to wage 
Fell war with Gaul, leads out a mighty army. 
Girt with his sword, he into Tiber throws 
The keys ; and, furious, loudly thus he cries : 
" Since, Peter, thy famed keys in war avail not, 
ril now unsheath, O Paul, thy mighty sword." 
^; . 1 



2 . GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

The Italian painters usually drew St Peter with keys, and St Paul 
with a sword in his hand. Evelyn, in his Collection of Epigrams on 
Paintings, has the following Epigram on a picture of Julius II. by 
Raphael : 

A countenance so strong and so severe, 
Though but a shadow, raises awe and fear. 
The picture breathes ; for this I can assure ye, 
Here you may see of art the utmost fury. 
His temples are begirt with triple crown, 
To shew that kings before him do fall down. 
Julius's power Raphael doth express, 
But who can paint Julius's holiness? 

Michael Angelo's mausoleum of Julius II. is memorable in the history 
of statuary. What is more closely connected with the lines in the text, 
is his colossal statue in bronze of the Pope at Bologna. On the artist 
proposing to place a book in Julius's right hand, the Pope replied, " Place 
in it a sword ; I am not a man of letters." To the irreparable loss of the 
fine arts, this statue was broken to pieces in an insurrection of the 
inhabitants of Bologna. It was converted into a cannon, called, after it, 
the Julio ; but the head was preserved in the Ducal Museum of Ferrara. 
It was upon this statue that the lines of Valeriani were written : 

Quo, quo, tam trepidus fugis, Viator, 
At si te Furise Gorgonesve, 
Aut acer Basiliscus insequatur? 
Non hie Julius, at figura Julii est. 

Where, where, traveller, are you flying in such a fright, as if you were 
pursued by Furies, Gorgons or Basilisks ? This is not Julius, it is only 
Julius's statue. 

Robertson, in his History of Charles F., mentions the military pontifi- 
cate of Julius as having tended materially to facilitate the introduction 
of the Reformation. The name of Julius was assumed in reference to 
Julius Csesar. At the siege of Mirandola, the Pope mounted a scaling 
ladder, and entered the city, sword in hand, through a breach in the walls. 
He was the founder of the Papal States ; and his ruling passion was strong 
in death ; for his last words were, " Out of Italy, French ! Out, Alfonso of 
Este !" (See further concerning Julius II., Bayle's Diet, from the trans- 
lation of which the above English version is taken). 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 3 

II. 

DEATH OF XAVIER. 

Paupere sub tecto, maris udi stratus ad oram, 
Viribus exhaustis, nuda tellure jacebat, 
Suspirans vel adhuc Christo submittere Gentes, 
Frustra ! deficiunt consumpto corpore vires, 
Supplent vota, animus fervens praetervolat undas. 
Cum gemitu flectens oculos, quam vellet adire 
Indociles populos, et nescia pectora flecti. 
Increpitat morbum, segues et plorat in artus, 
Frustratus votis animam sub littore ponit. 

Under a poor roof, upon the margin of the sea, ex- 
hausted in strength, and stretched on the bare ground, lay 
Xavier, still sighing for the conversion of the Gentiles to 
Christ. In vain ! For the requisite vigor is wanting to 
his emaciated body. Vows indeed are left him ; and borne 
upon these his mind passes across the ocean. Turning his 
eyes to its waves, he expresses with a groan how eagerly 
he would visit savage nations, and encounter dispositions 
which had never been known to yield. He chides his own 
disease, he weeps over his failing limbs ; at last, unable to 
fulfil the aspirations of his soul, he lays down his life on 
the margin of the waters. 

Xavier, on his way to convert the Chinese to Christianity, had arrived 
as far as Sancian, a small island opposite to Macao. The emperor of 
China permitted the Portuguese to land upon this island for the purpose 
of trade. They were not allowed to build permanent houses, but only 
temporary huts covered with mats and boughs of trees. While Xavier 
was waiting for a vessel to convey him to the Chinese continent (an enter- 
prise which the Portuguese discouraged, for fear of the Chinese) he was 
taken violently ill with a fever and aching of his side. He was placed in 
a hospital ship, unskilfully bled, and, from being unable to bear the heav- 
ing of the vessel, afterwai'ds laid upon the shore. A hiunane Portuguese 
merchant took him into one of the huts, where he lay upon the bare 
ground, and in a few days expired. In his last moments he groaned forth 
his regrets that he was thwarted in his attempt " to dispossess the Devil 
of the largest empire in the world." 

Dryden translated the Life of Xavier, as one of the firstfruits of his 

1—2 



4 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

conversion to the Roman Catholic religion He dedicated his work to 
James II. 's Queen, Maria D'Este : and, in that dedication he mentions 
the fact, that her majesty had invoked the special aid of St Xavier to 
secure for her a " Son of Prayers," or Roman Catholic successor to the 
throne of England. 



III. 

ARNAULD'S HEART CONVEYED TO PORT ROYAL, AND 
THERE ENSHRINED. 

Ad sanctas rediit sedes ejectus, et exul 
Hoste triumphato : tot tempestatibus actus 
Hoc portu in placido, hac sacra tellure quiescit 
Arnaldus, Veri defensor, et arbiter sequi. 
lUius ossa memor sibi vindicet extera tellus : 
Hue coelestis amor rapidis cor transtulit alis, 
Cor nunquam avulsum, nee amatis sedibus absens. 

Enfin, apres un long orage, 

Arnauld revient en ces saints lieux. 
II est au port, malgre les envieux, 

Qui croyoit qu'il feroit naufrage. 

Ce martyr de la verite 

Fut banni, fut persecute, 

Et mourut en terre etrangere, 
Heureuse de son corps d'etre depositaire. 
Mais son coeur toujours ferme, et toujours innocent, 
Fut porte par I'amour a qui tout est possible, 

Dans cette retraite paisible 

D''ou jamais il ne fut absent. 

Arnauld, one of the most celebrated characters in the religious history 
of France, was the chief glory of the establishment of Port Royal. The 
nuns of Port Royal obtained his heart from Brussels, where he died, and 
interred it in their cemetery. They prevailed on Sarteuil to write the 
Latin inscription in the text. An interesting account of Arnauld, in con- 
nexion with Port Royal, will be found in Professor Sir J. Stephen's 
Essays on Ecclesiastical History. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 5 

IV. 

MOLIERE'S DEATH. 

Eoscius hie situs est tristi Molierus in urna 
Cui genus humanum ludere ludus erat. 

Dum ludit mortem, Mors indignata jocantem 
Corripit, et mimum fingere sseva negat. 

The remains of Moliere, the French Eoscius, are de- 
posited in this urn. It was his sport to make sport of 
mankind. When one day, upon the stage, he was counter- 
feiting death. Death, incensed at such an indignity, snatched 
him away, and forbad a Mime to practise his fictions in 
such serious matters. 

There are various French epitaphs on Moliere, of a more complimen- 
tary nature than that in the text. In the hall of the French Academy, 
of which Moliere was not a member, his bust is placed with the following 
inscription : 

Rien ne manque a sa gloire, 
II manquoit a la notre. 

The lines in the text have reference to the circumstance, that Moliere 
expired whilst acting the part of a sick person, in his own play of Le 
Malade Imaginaire, who on certain occasions pretends to be dead. It was 
the fourth representation of the play, when, feeling indisposed in the 
forenoon, Moliere was earnestly pressed by his wife not to act that day : 
but he answered, " And what then is to become of my poor performers ? 
I should reproach myself if I neglected them a single day." 

Various instances have occurred of deaths of actors upon the stage, 
when acting parts in which their feelings have been greatly excited, and 
after repeating passages having express allusion to death. The actor 
Palmer died on the stage, immediately after repeating, in the play of The 
Stranger, " God! O God ! there is another and a better word !" On a 
tombstone at Bury St Edmunds is inscribed a passage in the play of 
Measure for Measure. The person to whose memory the tombstone was 
erected was a principal actor of the Norwich company, a.d. 1756. He 
expired on the stage immediately after repeating the lines on his tomb- 
stone : 

Reason thus with life : 
If I do lose Thee, I do lose a thing 
That none but fools would keep ; a breath thou art ! 



6 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

V. 

DEATH OF THE EMPEROR OTHO. 

Cum dubitaret adhuc belli civilis Enyo, 
Forsitan et posset vincere mollis Otho : 

Damnavit multo staturum sanguine Martem, 
Et fodit certa pectora nuda manu. 

Sit Cato, dum vivit, sane vel Caesar e major : 
Dum moritur, numquid major Othone fuit ? 

While yet Bellona doubts the warlike doom, 
And softer Otho might have overcome ; 
He stops the costly charge of blood in war, 
And by his sword falls his own murderer. 
With Cato CsQsar living ne^er had vied, 
But who than Otho e'er more greatly died. 

Suetonius's account of the death of Otho is particularly interesting as 
being derived from his own father, who was present at the battle of 
Bedriacum. 

" My father Suetonius Lenis was in this battle, being at that time an 
Angusticlavian Tribune in the thirteenth legion. He used frequently to 
say, that Otho, before his advancement to the empire, had such an abhor- 
rence of civil war, that, upon hearing an account given once at table 
of the death of Cassius and Brutus, he fell into a trembling, and that he 
never would have meddled with Galba, but that he was confident he 
might succeed in his design without a war. He was ultimately encou- 
raged to despise life by the example of a common soldier, who bringing 
news of the defeat of the army, and finding that he met with no credit, 
but was railed at for a liar and a coward, as if he had run away from the 
field of battle, fell upon his sword at the emperor's feet; upon the 
sight of which, my father said, Otho cried out, * that he would expose to 
no farther danger such brave men, who had deserved so well at his hands.' 
Advising therefore his brother, his brother's son, and the rest of his 
friends, to provide for their security in the best manner they could, after 
he had embraced and kissed them, he sent them away ; and then with- 
drawing into a private room by himself, he wrote a long letter of conso- 
lation to his sister. He likewise sent another to Messalina, Nero's widow, 
whom he had intended to marry, recommending to her his relics and 
memory. He then burnt all the letters which he had by him, to prevent 
the danger and mischief that might otherwise befal the writers from the 
conqueror. What money he had left he distributed amongst his domes- 
tics. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 7 

" And now being prepared and just upon the point of dispatching 
himself, he was induced to suspend his design from a great uproar which 
had broke out in the camp. Finding that such of the soldiers as were 
making off had been seized and detained as deserters, ' Let us add,' says 
he, * this night to our life.' These were his very words. He then gave 
orders that no violence should be offered to anybody ; and keeping his 
chamber-door open until late at night, he allowed all that pleased the 
liberty to come and see him. At last, after quenching his thirst with a 
draught of cold water, he took up two poniards, and having examined 
the points of both, put one of them under his pillow, and shutting his 
chamber-door, slept very soundly, until, awaking about break of day, he 
stabbed himself under the left pap. Some persons breakng into the 
room upon the first groan he gave, one while covering, and another 
while exposing his wound to the view of the by-standers, he soon died. 
His funeral was dispatched immediately, according to his own order, in 
the thirty-eighth year of his age, and ninety-fifth day of his reign. 

" The person and appearance of Otho no way corresponded to the 
great resolution which he displayed upon this occasion : for he is said to 
have been of low stature, splay-footed, and bandy-legged. He was, how- 
ever, effeminately nice in the care of his person : the hair of his body he 
took away by the roots ; and because he was somewhat bald, wore a kind 
of peruke, so exactly fitted to his head, that nobody could have known it 
for such. He used to shave every day, and rub his face with bread 
soaked in asses' milk ; the use of which he began when the down first 
appeared upon his chin, to prevent his having any beard. It is said like- 
wise that he celebrated publicly the holy rites of Isis, clad in a linen 
garment, such as is used by the worshippers of that goddess. All those 
particulars, I imagine, gave occasion to the world to wonder the more at 
his death, the manner of which was so little suitable to his life. Many of 
the soldiers then present, kissing and bedewing with their tears his hands 
and feet as he lay dead, and celebrating him as * a most gallant man, and 
an incomparable emperor,' immediately put an end to their own lives 
upon the spot, not far from his funeral pile. Many of those likewise who 
were at a distance, upon hearing the news of his death, in the anguish of 
their hearts, fell a fighting among themselves, until they dispatched one 
another. To conclude : the generality of mankind, though they hated 
him whilst living, yet highly extolled him after his death ; insomuch that 
it was the common talk and opinion, ' that Galba had been taken off by 
him, not so much from a desire to reign himself, as to restore Rome to 
its ancient liberty.'" 

The circumstances of Otho's death are also detailed by Tacitus with 
particularity and great power in the second book of his History. He 
relates Otho's speech to the soldiers, and a very remarkable argument 
against suicide, addressed to the emperor by the commander of the 
prsetorian guards. Tacitus observes, that the last action of Otho's life was 
great and magnanimous, and would do honour to his memory. 



8 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch 

In Niebuhr's Lectures, the following remarks are made on the subject 
of the emperor Otho*s death. 

" The last act of Otho is praised by Suetonius, and other historians 
after him, as noble and virtuous ; but I look upon it in a diflFerent light, and 
can see in it nothing but the action of a man who has sunk to the lowest 
stage of effeminacy, and who is unable to struggle against difficulties, or to 
bear the uncertainty between fear and hope. Such characters are met 
with in the lower as well as the higher spheres of life. I look upon Otho's 
putting an end to his existence with the same contempt with which Juvenal 
looks upon it ; and it is quite certain that Tacitus too, in reality, did not 
estimate Otho any higher than I do ; for we must well consider that a 
great historian, in describing a tragic event in a man's life, rises to a state 
of mental emotion, which is very different from his moral judgment." 

Niebuhr's distinction between Tacitus's "mental emotion" and his 
"moral judgment," is perhaps better suited to the atmosphere of a 
German lecture-room than to English readers. And, moreover, Tacitus, 
in the first book of his History, where he is not describing Otho's death, 
and, therefore, not labouring under a suspense of his moral judgment, 
writes that, " The mind of Otho was not, like his body, soft and effemi- 
nate." Juvenal in his second Satire, gives a most animated description of 
the effeminacy of Otho's looking-glass and other equipments for a cam- 
paign, but he does not appear in any part of his works to allude to the 
circumstances of Otho's death. 

Plutarch recites as a part of Otho's speech immediately before his 
death, " Believe me that I can die with greater glory than reign : for I 
know of no benefit that Rome can reap from my victory, equal to that 
which I shall confer upon her by sacrificing myself for peace and unani- 
mity, and to preserve Italy from beholding such another day as this." 
Plutarch observes, that "those who found fault with Otho's life are not 
more respectable for their number or their reputation, than those who 
applaud his death." 



VI. 

FESTUS'S SUICIDE. 



Indignas premeret pestis cum tabida fauces, 
Inque ipsos vultus serperet atra lues ; 

Siccis ipse genis flentes hortatus amicos 
Decrevit Stygios Festus adire lacus. 

Nee tamen obscuro pia polluit ora veneno, 
Aut torsit lenta tristia fata fame : 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 

Sanctam Eomana vitam sed morte peregit, 

Dimisitque animam nobiliore via. 
Hanc mortem fatis magni prgsferri Catonis 

Fama potest : hujus Caesar amicus erat. 

AVhen the dire quinsey chok'd his noble breath, 

And o'er his face the black'ning venom stole, 
Festus disdain'd to wait a ling'ring death, 

Cheer'd his sad friends, and freed his dauntless soul. 
Nor meagre famine's slowly-wasting force, 

Nor hemlock's gradual chilness he endur'd ; 
But clos'd his life a truly Eoman course. 

And with one blow his liberty secur'd. 



Dr Hodgson says tliat he omits the two concluding lines, from their 
degrading adulation of Domitian, as being unworthy the rest of Martial's 
Epigram. These two lines import that Festus's death was more to be 
admired than Cato's, for that life to him was less insupportable, inasmuch 
as the reigning Caesar was his friend, whereas Cato had the Csesar of his 
day for an enemy. 

Martial has seyeral epigrams condemnatory of suicide ; observing that 
in adversity it was easy to despise death and to acquire fame by suicide, 
but that true courage was best exhibited in sustaining misery, and the 
brightest fame was acquired by doing good whilst alive. (Fortiter ille 
facit, qui miser esse potest : and again, Hanc volo, laudari qui sine morte 
potest.) In this Epigram, and in that upon the death of Otho, Martial 
testifies to the reverence in which the death of Cato (which Horace calls 
the nohle death of Cato) was held in his day. Plutarch mentions seeing 
Cato's statue at Utica, it had a sword in its hand, to commemorate the 
manner of his death. Budgell, who made many contributions of consider- 
able merit to the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, committed suicide, by 
taking a boat at Somerset stairs, and, having ordered the waterman to 
shoot London Bridge, throwing himself, whilst the boat was passing the 
arch, into the Thames. He left the following sentence written on a slip 
of paper : 

What Cato did, and Addison approved. 
Cannot be wrong. 

Tacitus, in the Sixth Book of his Annals (sect, xxix), observes that in 
the times he is recording, self-destruction was made the interest of man- 
kind; for that those who died by their own hands, instead of waiting the 
sentence of the law, secured the performance of funeral rites, and their 
wills were held valid. Tacitus is there speaking of Labeo and his wife, 
who opened their veins and bled to death. In the xvith Book of his 



10 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Annals (s. 34, 35), he gives an interesting account of the suicide of the 
patriot Thrasea. And in the same book (s. 15), he relates the suicide of 
Osterius. In the xith book of his Annals he relates the ineffectual 
attempts of Messalina to commit suicide in the gardens of LucuUus, which 
she had obtained by procuring the death of the former owner; the 
exhortations of her mother are a curious part of the transaction. Sueto- 
nius's account of the suicide of the emperor Nero (s. 48, 49) is particu- 
larly interesting. The remarkable circumstances of the suicides of Brutus 
and Anthony are related by Plutarch. Pliny (Lib. i. Ep. xii.) details some 
singular incidents attending the suicide of his friend Corellius Rufus ; and 
in another letter in the same book (Ep. xxii.), he mentions being called 
with other friends to the bedside of Titus Aristo, who desired the com- 
pany to inquire of the physicians, whether his complaint was curable or 
not ; in order that, if they pronounced it incurable, he might voluntarily 
put an end to his life : but if they entertained hopes of a recovery, how- 
ever tedious and painful, he would wait the result with patience, for the 
sake of his wife, daughter, and friends. Perhaps, after all the examples 
that have been noticed, there is no instance of a more deliberate suicide, 
and that by a woman, than is recorded in Valerius Maximus. 

He relates, that " going into Asia with Sextus Pompeius, and passing 
by the city of Julis, he was present at the death of a lady, aged about 
ninety. She had declared to her superiors the reason which induced her 
to quit the world ; after this, she prepared to swallow down poison ; and 
imagining that the presence of Pompey would do great honour to the 
ceremony, she most humbly besought him to come thither on that occa- 
sion. He granted her request, but exhorted her very eloquently, and with 
the utmost earnestness, to live. However, this was to no purpose ; she 
thanked him for his kind wishes, and besought the gods to reward him, 
not so much those she was going to, as those she was quitting. ' I have 
hitherto,'* said she, * experienced only the smiles of fortune, and that by 
an ill-grounded fondness for life I may not run the hazard of seeing the 
goddess change her countenance towards me, I voluntarily quit the light, 
while yet I take pleasure in beholding it, leaving behind me two daugh- 
ters, and seven grandsons, to respect my memory.' She then turned 
about to her family, and exhorted them to live in peace and unity, and 
having recommended the care of her household, and the worship of her 
domestic deities, to her elder daughter, she, with a steady hand, took the 
glass that was filled with poison. As she held it, she addressed a prayer 
to Mercury, and having besought him to facilitate her passage to the bet- 
ter part of the receptacle of departed spirits, she with wonderful alacrity 
drank off the deadly draught. When this was done, with the same com- 
posure and steadiness of mind she signified in what manner the poison 
wrought ; how the lower parts of her body became cold and senseless by 
degrees. As soon as the noble parts began to feel the infection, she 
called her daughters to do the last office, by closing her eyes. * As for us,* 
says Valerius, ' who were almost stupified at the sight of so strange a 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AKD OCCURRENCES. 11 

spectacle, she dismissed us with weeping eyes. For Romans think com- 
passion in no way incompatible with fortitude.' " 

Besides Roman suicides, the remarkable sayings and actions of Romans 
when on the point of death not by their own hands, would form an inte- 
resting collection. The opinions of the ancients upon suicide, especi- 
ally the lines in the sixth uEneid, afford also excellent food for reflection. 
Perhaps they contain nothing more poetically terse than the lines of 
Spencer, in his Cave of Despair : 

And he that 'points the centonell his roome. 

Doth license him depart at sound of morning droome. 



VII. 

DEATH OF POLITIAN. 



Duceret extincto cum mors Laurente triumphum, 

Lsetaque pullatis inveheretur equis. 
Kespicit insano ferientem pollice chordas, 

Viscera singultu concutiente virum. 
Mirata est, tenuitque jugum : fm-it ipse, pioque 

Laurentem cunctos flagitat ore Deos. 
Miscebat precibus lachrymas, laclirimisque dolorem. 

Verba ministrabat liberiora dolor. 
Risit et antiquse non immemor ille querelae, 

Orphei Tartareae cum patuere vise. 
Hie etiam infernas tentat rescindere leges 

Fertque suas, dixit, in mea jura manus. 
Protinus et flentem percussit dura Poetam, 

Rupit et in medio pectora docta sono. 
Heu ! sic tu raptus, sic te mala fata tulerunt 

Arbiter Ausonise, Politianse, lyrae. 

As the grim Conqueror rode in gloomy pride. 

And great Lorenzo graced the captive train, 
A bard in bitterness of anguish sigh'd, 

Whilst wild distraction taught the faltering strain. 
The tyrant hears : the sable rein he draws. 

To mark the man that wept his noble prey, 
And, madly raging 'gainst his ruthless laws. 

To heaven appeal'd against the dread decree. 



12 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

He smiled, whilst memory renew'd the lays 

Which Orpheus sung amid Tartarean gloom — 
" And wilt thou too the proud rebellion raise, 

And struggle 'gainst irrevocable doom ? " 
He spoke, and sternly smote the weeping friend, 

And closed the lips which glow'd with sacred fire. 
Such, great Politian, was thy timeless end. 

Thus fell the Master of the Ausonian lyre. 

The Latin verses are by Bembo. Politian enjoyed the patronage 
and friendship of Lorenzo de Medici, was tutor to Leo X. and his other 
children, and attended Lorenzo on his death- bed Various accounts of 
Politian's death are related by friends or enemies. The most favourable 
is that it was occasioned by grief for Lorenzo de Medici, and the calami- 
ties he anticipated from the reverses of Lorenzo's family. He appears 
from all accounts to have died in a paroxysm of fever, whilst playing 
some impassioned strain on his lute. 

Mr Hallam, in his History of Modern Literature, assigns the position 
occupied by Politian among the early Italian authors. In his epitaph at 
St Mark's church in Florence, his fame is rested on his knowledge of 
three languages : 

Politianus in hoc tumulo jacet Angelus unum 

Qui caput, et linguas, res nova, tres habuit. 

Here lies Politian, who, strange thing indeed ! 

Had when alive three tongues, and but one head. 



vni. 

THE BRANDING OF PRYNNE. 

S.L. Stigmata Laudis. 

Stigmata maxillis referens insignia Laudis 
Exultans remeo, victima grata Deo. 

S. L. The Stigmas op Archbishop Laud. 

I return to my prison in exultation, an acceptable vic- 
tim, as I hope, to heaven, whilst I carry on my cheeks 
the branded letters which denote the persecution of Laud. 

Prynne composed the above distich upon his return to the Tower, 
after the barbarous execution of the second inhuman sentence of the 
Star-Chamber, that he should have both his ears cut off, or so much of 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 13 

them as remained after undergoing his previous sentence, and be branded 
on the cheeks with the letters S. L., denoting Seditious Libeller, to which 
letters Prynne assigns his own interpretation, " The Stigmas of Laud." 
In executing the sentence a large piece of his cheek was cut off. Prynne 
was moreover to be fined £5000, and to be imprisoned for life in a castle 
at Jersey. Prynne, according to his first sentence, stood in the pillory 
at Westminster and Cheapside, and had an ear cut off at each place. 
This was for writing his Histrio-Mastix, which was burnt before his face ; 
and the book consisting of 1000 pages, he was almost suffocated by 
the smoke A painter was punished for circulating pictures of Prynne, 
which were ordered by the Star-Chamber to be defaced and the frames 
burnt. In the Long Parliament the proceedings against Prynne were 
reversed, and he was conducted to London in triumph. After such bar- 
barities perpetrated on Prynne, chiefly at the instigation of Archbishop 
Laud, and with the sanction of Charles L, human nature in England 
must not be censured too severely, if, in moments of retaliatory violence, 
it beheld without compassion the severance of a mitred or of a crowned 
head. 



IX. 

MESSAGE FROM PHILIP II. TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Te veto ne pergas bello defendere Belgas 
QujB Dracus eripuit, nunc restituantur, oportet ; 
Quas Pater evertit, jubeo te condere eellas, 
Religio PapsB fae restituatur ad unguem. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S REPLY. 
Ad Graecas, bone Rex, fient mandata ealendas. 

No longer, Queen, the Belgic rout befriend : 
What Drake has plunder'd, back to India send. 
Thy impious Father's sacrilege repair, 
And bow thy sceptre to St Peter's chair. 

Reply. 
Believe me. Prince, I'll do thy high behest. 
When in one week two Sundays stand confest. 

This poetical correspondence is related in Miss Strickland's Life of 
Q,u€en Elizabeth, and in Seward's Anecdotes, whence the translations are 



i4< GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

taken. Walpole*s NohU AutJiors is cited. Walpole cites Ballard's Me- 
moirs of British Ladies. Ballard refers to Fuller's Hol^/ State, where the 
verses are found with this translation : 

Worthy king ! know this, your will 
At latter Lammas we'll fulfil. 



PRESENTATION OF HENRY VIII.'s BOOK TO POPE LEO. 

Anglorum Rex Henricus, Leo Decime, mittit 
Hoc opus, et fidei testem et amicitise. 

Tenth Leo I Heni*y sends this book to thee, 
Proof of his faith, and of his amity. 

Henry VIII.'s book was presented to the pope in full consistory by 
the English ambassador, with a pompous speech : it was entitled A Vin- 
dication of the Seven Sacraments. In this work Henry entered the lists of 
polemical controversy with Luther ; a controversy which the King and 
the Christian reformer conducted as disputes are usually conducted at 
Billingsgate The royal theologian was rewarded by the Pope with the 
title of " Defender of the Faith ;" and an Indulgence was granted to 
every one who should peruse the book. 



XL 

GUNPOWDER PLOT. 



Purgatorem animse derisit Jacobus ignem 

Et sine quo superum non adeunda domus. 
Frenduit hoc trina monstrum Latiale corona, 

Movit et horrificum cornua dena minax, 
" Et nee inultus," ait, " temnes mea sacra, Britanne 

" SuppHcium, spreta religione, dabis. 
" Et si stelligeras unquam penetraveris arces, 

" Non nisi per flammas triste patebit iter." 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 15 

O quam funesto cecinisti proxima vero 
Verbaque ponderibus vix caritura suis I 

Nam prope Tartareo sublime rotatus ab igni, 
Ibat ad sethereas, umbra perusta, plagas. 

King James had derided the flames of purgatory. 
But the Romish Beast, wearing a triple crown, shook its 
ten horns with indignation at such alleged impiety. Then 
uttered, " Briton, you shall not despise my sacred ordi- 
nances, and the crime pass unavenged. If you are ever 
permitted to reach the gates of heaven, your path shall 
anywise be laid through flames." O how nearly were 
those predictions verified ! for how narrowly did our king 
escape being hurled aloft by an infernal combustion, and 
passing into the ethereal regions as a shade in confla- 
gration. 

Some very important lights on the Gunpowder Plot will be found in 
Mr Jardine's Criminal Trials. The printed State Trials (as explained in 
the author's Great Oyer of Poisoning) are for the most part official will- 
o'-the-whisps. Mr Jardine has inspected many of the original documents 
concerning the Plot in the State Paper Office, which for the most part 
belonged to the collection of Sir E. Coke's papers that were seized by 
order of the Privy Council. The inventory of those papers specifies " a 
black buckram bag containing papers about the Powder Plot." Among 
other curiosities in the State Paper Office, are Guide Fawkes's examina- 
tions taken under torture, with his signatures bearing the strongest 
internal evidence of the application of the rack. In the last of the signa- 
tures the pen appears to have dropt out of Fawkes's hand before he 
could complete his name. Fawkes's lantern is shewn at the Bodleian 
Library. Mr Jardine assigns reasons for inferring that notwithstanding 
the popular belief which Milton has adopted in the above Latin epigram, 
the Gunpowder plot was neither encouraged nor approved at Rome. 
Milton wrote several other juvenile epigrams on the Gunpowder Plot; 
but they are all, including the one in the text, more interesting as indi- 
catory of current opinions, and as coming from his pen, than for any 
intrinsic merit. 



16 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XII. 

FRANKLIN'S SNATCHES. 

Eripuit ccelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyranno. 

Tu vols le sage courageux 
Dont I'heureux et male genie 
Arrache le tonnere aux Dieux 
Et le sceptre a la tyrannie. 

The Latin is by Turgot, and the French by D'Alembert. 

" Franklin made his Kite of a large silk handkerchief and two cross 
sticks of a proper length on which to extend it. He took the oppor- 
tunity of the first approaching thunder-storm, to walk into a field, in 
which there was a shed convenient for his purpose. But, desirous of 
avoiding the ridicule which too commonly attends unsuccessful attempts 
in science, he communicated his intended experiment to nobody but his 
son, who assisted him in raising the kite. 

" The kite being raised, a considerable time elapsed before there was 
any appearance of its being electrified. One very promising cloud had 
passed over it without any effect, when at length, just as he was beginning 
to despair of his contrivance, he observed some loose threads of the 
hempen string to stand erect, and avoid one another just as if they had 
been suspended on a common conductor. Struck with this encouraging 
appearance, he presented his knuckle to the key, when he instantly per- 
ceived a very evident electric spark. Other sparks succeeded at short 
intervals ; and when the string became wet with rain, electric fire was 
collected in abundance." 

Mirabeau pronounced a funeral oration upon Franklin from the tri- 
bune of the National Assembly, where he moved and carried a resolution 
that the Assembly should wear mourning for three days in honour of 
Franklin. In America there was a general mourning for two months. 
Mirabeau, in the course of his speech says, " Ne seroit — il pas digne de 
vous. Messieurs, de vous unir a cette acte religieux, de participer, en 
quelque sorte, a cet hommage rendu, a la face de I'univers, a I'homme qui 
a le plus contribue a assurer les droits des hommes? L'antiquite eut 
eleve des autels a ce vaste et puissant genie, qui, au profit des mortels, 
embrassant dans sa pensee le ciel et la terre, sut dompter la foudre et les 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 17 

XIII. 
ARRIA'S NON DOLET ! (It is not painful !) 

Casta suo gladium cum traderet Arria Pseto, 
Quern de visceribus traxerat ipsa suis : 

Si qua fides, vulnus, quod feci, non dolet, inquit ; 
Sed quod tu facies, hoc mihi, Psete, dolet. 

When Arria to her Paetus gave the steel, 

Which from her bleeding side did newly part ; 

From my own stroke, said she, no pain I feel, 
But, ah ! thy wound will stab me to the heart. 

The translation is by Sir C. Sedley. A multitude of ingenious and 
spirited versions in print might be added of this celebrated epigram. It 
would appear from Tacitus, Dio Cassius and other ancient writers, that 
Arria said only " Psete, non dolet ! " — " Psetus, it does not pain me I" — 
and that the sentiment in the last hue is the invention of Martial. Pa3tus 
was terrified and hesitating, when his wife re-animated him by her mag- 
nanimous example. The story is related in the Tatler, No. lxxii. There 
is an extant antique statue upon the subject. Psetus is stabbing himself 
with one hand, and holds up the dying Arria with the other. 

Pliny in his Letters (Lib. III. Ep. xvi.), relates several particulars 
concerning Arria (amongst others, dashing her head against the wall), 
which he contends are more heroical than the so-much-talked-of " Psetus, 
it is not painful \" And the letter ends with a reflection, that the most 
famous actions are not always the most noble. Arria's daughter was 
married to Thrassea, also immortalized by suicide. And her grand- 
daughter, Fannia, appears from another letter of Pliny (Lib. VII. Ep. xix.) 
to have rivalled her lady-ancestry in heroinism. 

The conjugal magnanimity of Pollutia related by Tacitus (Lib. XVI. 
s. 10, 11) is not less admirable than that of Arria. Pliny mentions an- 
other remarkable instance of a wife committing suicide along with her 
husband, whom she had instigated to suffer himself to be fastened to her 
by cords, and thus to be precipitated together into a lake. Pliny (Lib. 
VI. Ep. XXIV.) writes, " I was lately sailing upon our lake with an old 
man of my acquaintance, who desired me to observe a villa situated upon 
its banks, which had a chamber hanging over the water. ' From that 
room,* said he, * a woman of our city threw herself with her husband.' 
The cause was a disease of the husband which the wife deemed incurable. 
Tacitus relates some interesting circumstances concerning Seneca and his 
wife Paulina, after that philosopher was condemned to death by Nero 
(Lib. XV. s. 62 — 64). Tacitus in the fourth book of his history pro- 

2 



18 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

mises to relate how Sabinus lay concealed in caverns for nine years sup- 
ported by the fidelity and attachment of his wife Eponina. Plutarch 
relates that Eponina was ultimately discovered in a cave with her hus- 
band, and put to death along with him by Vespasian, to the immortal 
infamy of the emperor. 



XIV. 

DEATH OF PORCIA, Wlf^E OF BRUTUS. 

Conjugis audisset fatum cum Porcia Bruti, 
Et subtracta sibi quaereret arma dolor : 

Nondum scitis, ait, mortem non posse negari ? 
Credideram, satis hoc vos docuisse patrem. 

Dixit, et ardentes avido bibit ore favillas. 
I nunc, et ferrum, turba molesta, nega. 

When Brutus' fall wing'd fame to Porcia brought, 
Those arms her friends concealed, her passion sought. 
She soon perceiv'd their poor officious wiles. 
Approves their zeal, but at their folly smiles. 
What though death's weapons all be laid aside, 
Yet dream ye still that death can be denied ? 
Me thought ye better knew, who knew my sire, 
She said, and swallow'd down the living fire. 

The following lines referring to Porcia*s swallowing the coals were 
composed in honour of Yittoria Colonna, widow of Ferdinando D'Avilos, 
Marquis of Pescara, who commanded the Imperialists at the battle of 
Pavia, in which Francis was taken prisoner. After her husband's death, 
she lived in retirement, and devoted her poetical talents, which were of 
great celebrity, to eulogizing the character of her deceased husband, and 
recording their mutual affection. Michael Angelo, who painted for her 
many of his choicest pictures, paid a visit to her in the last moments of 
her life. Upon returning home, he expressed his extreme regret, that he 
had not on that occasion kissed her face or her forehead, as well as her 
hand. 

Non vivam sine te, mi Brute, exterrita dixit 

Porcia; et ardentes sorbuit ore faces. 
Davale, te extincto, dixit Victoria, vivam, 

Perpetuo msestos sic dolitura dies. 
Utraque Romana est, sed in hoc Victoria major 
Nulla dolere potest mortua, viva dolet. 

Flaminio. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 19 

Vittoria Colonna, who, upon the death of her distinguished husband, 
resolved to live, and dedicate her life to his honour, surpassed Porcia, 
(though they acted both Romanlike); inasmuch as it is the living, and not 
the dead, who grieve. 

Valerius Maximus apostrophizes Porcia in a high strain of eulogy, 
representing her death to have been more magnanimous than that of her 
husband Brutus, principally on account of its novelty. Some writers 
suppose that, in reality, she had recourse to a common mode of suicide 
among the Romans, and recently among the French, viz. that of being 
smothered by the vapour of charcoal. Whereas Plutarch writes that, in 
his day, there was extant a letter of Brutus to a friend, bewailing the 
death of his wife Porcia, and giving the details of the lingering disorder 
of which she died. 

In the Galerie des Femmes Fortes there is a picture of Porcia taking 
the coals which a Cupid is setting fire to with his torch. Beneath are 
some French verses, dated 1647, by Pierre Le Moyne, a Jesuit. In allu- 
sion to the device in the picture, he writes : — 

Mais I'Amour de ses traits vint m'ouvrir le tombeau, 
Et je pris pour mourir, manquant d'armes plus fortes, 
Des charbons qu'il me fit avec son flambeau. 
The deaths of Ama and of Paulina are, like that of Porcia, repre- 
sented both in pictures and poetry in the Galerie des Femmes Fortes. 



XV, 

DEFENCE OF SYRACUSE BY ARCHIMEDES, AND HIS 
DEATH. 

Calliditas Graia, atque astus poUentior armis 
Marcellum tantasque minas terraque marique 
Arcebat, stabatque ingens ad raoenia bellum. 
Vir fiiit, Isthmiacis decus immortale colonis, 
Ingenio facile ante alios telluris alumnos, 
Xudus opum ; sed cui coelum terrseque paterent. 
Ille iiovus pluvias Titan ut proderet ortu 
Fuscatis tristis radiis ; ille, haereat, anne 
Pendeat instabilis tellus ; cur fcedere certo 
Hunc afFusa globum Tethys circumliget undis, 
Noverat, atque una pelagi lunseque labores, 
Et pater Oceanus qua lege refunderet asstus. 
Non ilium mundi numerasse capacis arenas 

2—2 



20 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Vana fides : puppes etiam constructaque saxa 

Foeminea traxisse ferunt contra ardua dextra. 

****** 

Tu quoque ductoris laerymas, memorande, tulisti, 
Defensor patriso ; meditantem in pulvere formas, 
Nee turbatum animi tanta feriente ruina, 
Ignarus miles vulgi te sorte peremit. 

Thus Grecian policy and art excell'd 

Their arms ; and both by sea and land repell'd 

Marcellus. For One Man withstood his might, 

Bulwark of Sicily in Home's despite : 

One Man, his country^s everlasting fame. 

Whose wit with ease all other overcame, 

That then the world produced. Not rich; but one 

To whom the Heavens and all the Earth was known. 

He, by the Sun's obscured rays, at birth 

Of day, could tell what storms would fall : if Earth 

Were fix'd, or did instable hang : why bound 

By certain leagues this Globe's encompass'd round 

With Thetis' waves : the labours of the Sea 

And Moon; what laws the Ocean's tides obey. 

Nor is it vain to think that he the sand 

Of the vast world could count ; who by the hand 

Of a weak woman could, with so much skill. 

Draw ships, and heaps of stones against a hill. 

* - * * * * * 

Tears for thee, likewise, from the general, 
Thou fam'd defender of thy Country ! fell, 
When drawing lines and figures in the sand. 
Whilst in so great a ruin thou dost stand 
Untouched, and ideas dost pursue. 
By chance an ign'rant common soldier slew. 

Plutarch, in his life of Marcellus, mentions three accounts of the death 
of Archimedes, but they all coincide in the circumstance of his having 
been killed by a soldier, whilst deeply engaged in his scientific lucubra- 
tions. Polybius, nearly a contemporary of Archimedes, mentions his 
contrivances for injuring the Koman ships by means of iron hands grasp- 
ing their prows and lifting them out of the water, which occasioned Mar- 
cellus to say to his soldiers, " He employs our ships but as buckets to 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 21 

draw water." (Polyb. Lib. vin.) The current tradition of Archimedes 
destroying the Roman ships with burning glasses is not mentioned, either 
by Polybius, Livy, or Plutarch. Archimedes' screw, his Eureka, and his 
lever, which only wanted a fulcrum for moving the world, have contributed 
to give him a celebrity only inferior to our Newton. 

About 136 years after the death of Archimedes, Cicero was Qusestor 
of Sicily. He tells us, in his Disputations composed at his Tusculan villa, 
that he went, accompanied by the principal citizens of Agrigentum, to 
search for Archimedes' tomb among the multitude of monuments near 
the gate of that city. He discovered the object of his search by observing 
a sphere included in a cylinder, which was just discernible above the 
brambles and high grass that concealed the rest of the tomb. The adja- 
cent ground was forthwith cleared ; and, upon closer inspection of the 
monument, some half verses were perceived of which the remainder had 
mouldered away. The relics of the verses, however, exactly corresponded 
with parts of a complete epitaph which Cicero had before possessed, that 
had express reference to the sphere and cylinder found on the tomb. 
These figures, it was stated in the epitaph, had been desired by Ar- 
chimedes to be placed on his tomb in marble, to commemorate the dis- 
covery of his problem for estimating their respective solid contents. 
Cicero mentions his gratification that the tomb of Archimedes, of which 
all memory had been obliterated amongst his countrymen, should after 
the lapse of years have been brought to light by a " Man of Arpinum." 
See further respecting Archimedes in Professor Donkin's Art. in Dr Smith's 
Blog. Diet. 



XVI. 

HANNIBAL SWEARING ENMITY TO THE ROMANS. 

Urbe fuit media sacrum genitricis Elissse 
Manibus, et patria Tyriis formidine cultum, 
Quod taxi circumi et picese squalentibus umbris 
Abdiderant, coelique areebant lumine, templum. 
Hoe sese, ut perhibent, curis mortalibus olim 
Exuerat regina loco. Stant marmore maBsto 
Effigies, Belasque parens, omnisque nepotum 
A Belo series : stat gloria gentis Agenor, 
Et qui longa dedit terris cognomina Phoenix. 
Ipsa sedet tandem asternum conjuncta Sichseo : 
Ante pedes ensis Phrygius jacet : ordine centum 
Stant aras coelique deis, Ereboque potenti. 



22 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Hie, crine effuso, atque Ennseae numina divae, 
Atque Acheronta vocat Stygia cum veste sacerdos. 
Immugit tellus, rumpitque horrenda per umbras 
Sibila : inaeeensi flagrant altaribus ignes. 
Tum magieo volitant eantu per inania manes 
Exciti, vultusque in marmore sudat Elissse. 
Hannibal hsec patrio jussu ad penetralia fertur ; 
Ingressique habitus atque ora explorat Hamilcar. 
Non ille evantis Massylse palluit iras, 
Non diros templi ritus, adspersaque tabo 
Limina, et audito surgentes carmine flammas. 
Olli permulcens genitor caput, oscula libat, 
Attollitque animos hortando, et talibus implet : 
Gens recidiva Phrygum Cadmese stirpis alumnos 
Foederibus non sequa premit : si fata negarint 
Dedecus id patria3 nostra depellere dextra, 
Hsec tua sit laus, nate, velis : age, concipe bella 
Latura exitium Lauren tibus : horreat ortus 
Jam pubes Tyrrhena tuos, partusque recusent 
Te surgente, puer, Latise producere matres. 
His acuit stimulis ; subicitque baud mollia dicta : 
Romanos terra atque undis, ubi competet setas, 
Ferro ignique sequar, Rhseteaque fata revolvam. 
Non superi mihi, non Martem cohibentia pacta, 
Non celsas obstiterint Alpes, Tarpeiaque saxa. 
Hanc mentem juro nostri per numina Martis, 
Per manes, regina, tuos. Tum nigra triformi 
Hostia mactatur divae, raptimque recludit 
Spirantes artus poscens responsa sacerdos. 

Amidst the city, circled by a grove 

Of shady yew, that did all light remove, 

A temple stood, built to Eliza's ghost, 

And dreadful held to all the Tyrian coast. 

Here (as 'tis said) the queen with her own hand 

Herself from grief absolved : sad statues stand 

Of father Belus, and, in order, all 

His offspring, with Agenor, whom they call 

The glory of their line ; Phoenix, whose fame 

Gave to that land an everlasting name. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 23 

At length Eliza joined to her lord 

For ever ; at her feet the Phrygian sword : 

Next unto these twice fifty altars stand, 

Built to the gods that heaven and hell command : 

Clad in a Stygian vest, with scattered locks 

The priestess here Ennsea's power invokes. 

And Acheron : when from the trembling ground 

Sad murmurs breaking, through the temple sound, 

And flames from the unkindl'd altars rise. 

Then, raised by magic songs, with horrid cries, 

The wand'ring ghosts fly through the hollow air, 

While Dido, in her marble, sweats for fear. 

Hither comes Hannibal, commanded by 

Hamilcar, who observed with curious eye 

His face and gesture. Him no horrid rites 

O' th' place, nor mad Massila's fury frights, 

Nor the dark pavement stain'd with blood, nor flames 

Arising at the sound of horrid names. 

Stroking his head, his father kiss'd him, cheers 

His early courage, and thus fills his ears. 

An unjust nation, sprang from ruin'd Troy, 
With their harsh leagues do Cadmus' sons annoy ; 
If Fates deny the honor should be mine 
To wipe ofl" this disgrace, may it be thine ! 
Think on, a war may Italy destroy : 
And may the Tyrrhene youth, my warlike boy ! 
Thy rising dread ; and teeming mothers fear 
Their children to produce, if thou appear. 

Mov'd by this language, he replies. By sea 
And land, so soon as years will sufler me, 
With fire and sword the Romans I'll pursue, 
And what Khaetean Fates decree, undo. 
Neither the gods, nor leagues forbidding war, 
Tarpeian rocks, nor Alps shall me debar. 
This my resolve by Mars I swear, and by 
Thy ghost, great queen ! — This said, to Hecate 
Falls a black victim : the priestess enquires 
The trembling entrails, as the soul expires. 

The Latin is by Silius Italicus : the translation by Ross, temp. Car. II. 
This remarkable occurrence of Hannibal swearing enmity to the Romans 



24 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

is related by Polybius : it is the subject of an admired painting by Sir 
Joshua Reynolds, A poetical relation of it is contained in a collection 
of poems called The Tribute. The following is Dr Arnold's account of 
the transaction : 

"When all was ready, the General performed a solemn sacrifice to 
propitiate the gods for the success of his enterprise. The omens were 
declared favourable : Hamilcar had poured the libation on the yictim, 
which was duly offered on the altar, when, on a sudden, he desired all his 
officers, and the ministers of the sacrifice, to step aside to a little distance, 
and then called his son Hannibal. Hannibal, a boy of nine years old, 
went up to his father, and Hamilcar asked him kindly, if he would like 
to go with him to the war. The boy eagerly caught at the offer, and with 
a child's earnestness, implored his father to take him. Then Hamilcar 
took him by the hand, and led him up to the altar, and bade him, if he 
wished to follow his father, lay his hand upon the sacrifice, and swear, 
' that he would never be the friend of the Romans.' Hannibal swore, 
and never to his latest hour forgot his vow. He went forth, devoted to 
his country's gods, as the appointed enemy and destroyer of their ene- 
mies; and the thought of his high calling dwelt ever on his mind, 
directing and concentrating the spirit and enthusiasm of his youth, and 
mingling with it the forecast, the great purposes, and the deep and un- 
wavering resolution of the maturest manhood." 



XVII. 
REGULUS'S TORTURES IN A CASK. 

Prsefixo paribus ligno mucronibus omnes 
Armantur laterum crates, densusque per artem 
Texitur ereeti stantisque ex ordine ferri 
Infelix stimulus, somnisque hae fraude negatis, 
Quocunque inflexum produeto tempore torpor 
Inclinavit iners^ fodiunt ad viscera corpus. 

A cage they build 
Of wood, whose grates, on every side, were fill'd 
With equal pikes of steel ; which sharp and thick 
By art, in order plac'd, erected stick. 
All sleep by this invention was denied, 
And when, through length of time, to either side 
Dull slumbers him inclin'd, a row of pikes 
Into his bowels through his body strikes. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 25 

There has been much discussion on the subject of Regulus's death. 
Horace, in his description of Regulus's departure from Rome, after per- 
suading the Senate to reject the treaty of his ransom, (perhaps the most 
sublime and beautiful picture in that poet's works), represents Regulus to 
have been subjected to tortures. Cicero in his Offices and other writings, 
makes a similar statement. Niebuhr and Arnold consider the relation 
of Regulus being tortured by the Carthaginians as doubtful, and, perhaps, 
invented by way of pretext or excuse for cruelties inflicted by the Romans 
on Carthaginian captives. The silence of Polybius on the subject is im- 
portant. Dio Cassius, though he discountenances the common reports 
concerning Regulus's cask, says, indeed, that he lost his sleep from being 
shut up in the same place with an elephant. Regulus in the cask is the 
subject of one of Salvator Rosa's most admired paintings. 



XVIII. 

WEST'S COUGH, 



Ante omnes morbos importunissima tussis 
Qua durare datur, traxitque sub ilia vires : 
Dura etenim versans imo sub pectore regna 
Perpetuo exercet teneras luetamine costas, 
Oraque distorquet, vocemque immutat anhelam. 
Nee cessare lociis : sed ssevo concita motu 
Molle domat latus, et corpus labor omne fatigat. 
Unde molesta dies, noctemque insomnia turbant. 
Nee tua, si mecum comes hie jucundus adesses, 
Verba juvare queant, aut hunc lenire dolorem 
Sufficiant tua vox dulcis, nee vultus amatus. 

Above all my other maladies, a most troublesome 
Cough wields its tyrannical sway in the inmost recesses 
of my chest. It shakes my ribs with incessant strug- 
gles ; distorts my countenance, alters my tremulous voice. 
There is no intermission. My delicate side is subdued ; 
my whole body is fatigued. Hence my day is wearisome, 
my night sleepless. And although you, my cheering 
companion, were present, your words would be unavail- 
ing for my relief: and this acute suffering could not 
be assuaged by the sweetness of your voice, or by your 
beloved looks. 



26 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

West prefaces these lines on his Cough thus : " It was the production 
of four o'clock in the morning, while I lay in my bed tossing and cough- 
ing, and all unable to sleep." West died at the early age of twenty-six. 
The composition by which he is chiefly known is a poem in imitation of 
Tibullus, prospective of his own premature destiny His correspondence 
with Gray, whom he so feelingly addresses in the concluding lines, will 
be read with interest by all persons endued with literary taste. 



XIX. 

WEST ON GRAY'S RETURN FROM HIS TRAVELS. 

O mese jucunda Comes quietis ! 
Quae fere SBgrotuin solita es levare 
Pectus, et sensim ah ! nimis ingruentes 

Fallere euras. 

Quid canes ? quanto Lyra die furore 
Gesties quando hac reducem sodalem 
Glauciam gaudere simul videbis 

Meque sub umbra. 

My Lyre ! the sweet companion of my ease, alleviator 
of my sorrows, deceiver of my cares ! with what " ecstasy 
will your living strings be waked" when you behold my 
Glaucias returned from his travels, and rejoicing along with 
me in the " cool sequestered shade." 

West used to call Gray, in poetry, Glaucias, and Gray, West, in like 
manner, Favonius. It appears from the text that Gray was right in his 
belief that he had " gained from heaven a Friend.'* It may be noticed 
that several of the most interesting gems of antiquity are the congratula- 
tions to friends returned from travels. Of these Catullus's Ode to Veran- 
nius, and Horace's to Fompeius Varus, are the most joyous. 



I.] REMAEKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 27 

XX. 

LABERIUS'S PROLOGUE. 

Necessitas, cujus cursus transversi' impetum 
Voluerunt multi effugere, pauci potuerunt, 
Quo me detrusit poene extremis sensibus ? 
Quern nulla ambitio, nulla unquam largitio, 
Nullus timor, vis nulla, nulla auetoritas 
Movere potuit in juventa de statu ; 
Ecce in senecta ut facile labefecit loco 
Viri excellentis mente clemente edita 
Submissa placide blandiloquens oratio ! 
Etenim ipsi Dii negari cui nihil potuerunt, 
Hominem me denegare quis posset pati ? 
Ergo bis tricenis annis actis sine nota 
Eques Komanus lare egressus meo 
Domum revertas Mimus : Nimirum hoc die 
Uno plus vixi mihi quam vivendum fuit. 
Fortuna, immoderata in bono seque atque in malo, 
Si tibi erat libitum literarum laudibus 
rioris cacumen nostrae famae frangere, 
Cur cum vigebam membris prseviridantibus, 
Satisfacere populo et tali cum poteram viro, 
Non flexibilem me concurvasti ut carperes ? 
Nunc meo quo dejicis ? quid ad scenam afFero ? 
Decorem formge, an dignitatem corporis, 
Animi virtutem, an vocis jucundse sonum ? 
Ut hedera serpens vires arboreas necat, 
Ita me vetustas amplexa annorum enecat : 
Sepulchri similis nihil nisi nomen retinens. 

For threescore years since first I saw the light, 

I lived without reproach — a Roman knight. 

As such I left my sacred home ; but soon 

Shall there return an Actor and Buffoon. 

Since stretched beyond the point where honour ends. 

One day too long my term of life extends. 

Fortune, extreme alike in good or ill, 

Since thus to blast my fame has been thy will. 



28 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Why did'st thou not, ere spent my youthful race, 
Bend me, yet pliant, to this dire disgrace ? 
While power remain'd, with yet unbroken frame. 
Him to have pleas'd, and earn'd the crowd's acclaim : 
But now, why drive me to an actor's part. 
When nought remains of all the actor's art : 
Nor life, nor fire, which could the scene rejoice, 
Nor grace of form, nor harmony of voice ? 
As fades the tree round which the ivy twines, 
So in the clasp of age my strength declines. 

The circumstances of Laberius's Prologue are thus related in Cum- 
berland's Observer. 

" This Laberius was a Roman knight of good family, and a man withal 
of high spirit and pretensions, but unfortunately he had a talent for the 
drama : he read his own plays better than any man then living could act 
them; for neither Garrick nor Henderson was yet born. P. Clodius, the 
fine gentleman and rake of the age, had the indecorum to press Laberius 
to come forward on the public stage, and take the principal character in 
one of his own plays : Laberius was indignant, and Clodius proceeded to 
menaces : — ' Do your worst,' says the Roman knight, ' you can but send 
me to Dyracchium and back again' — proudly intimating that he would 
suffer the like banishment with Cicero, rather than consent to his 
demand ; for acting was not then the amusement of people of fashion, 
and private theatres were not thought of. Julius Csesar was no less cap- 
tivated with Laberius's talents than Clodius had been, and being a man 
not apt to be discouraged by common diflOiculties, took up the same soli- 
citation, and assailed our Roman knight, who was now sixty years of age, 
and felt his powers in their decline : conscious of this decline no less 
than of his own dignity, he resisted the degrading request ; he interceded, 
he implored of Cscsar to excuse him : it was to no purpose, Csesar had 
made it his point, and his point he would carry : the word of Csesar was 
law, and Laberius, driven out of all his defences, was obliged to submit 
and comply. Csesar makes a grand spectacle for all Rome; bills are 
given out for a play of Laberius, and the principal part is announced to 
be performed by the author himself: the theatre is thronged with specta- 
tors ; all Rome is present, and Decimus Laberius presents himself on the 
stage, and addresses the audience in the above prologue." 

Cumberland gives a version of the Prologue ; that in the text is by 
Dunlop. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 29 

XXI, 

MUCIUS SC^YOLA, 

(A) 
Cum peteret regem decepta satellite dextra, 

Ingessit sacris se peritura focis. 
Sed tarn sseva plus miracula non tulit hostis, 

Et raptum flammis jussit abire virum, 
Urere quam potuit contemto Mucius igne, 

Hanc spectare manum Porsena non potuit. 
Major deceptae fama est et gloria dextrae : 

Si non errasset, fecerat ilia minus. 

"When that right hand which aimed a royal blow 

Spent on a worthless slave its baffled ire. 
It rush'd into the flames — but e'en the foe 

Admiring snateh''d it from the sacred fire. 
The pangs that fearless Scsevola sustain'd 

Porsenna's eye endur'd not to behold : 
Had it not err'd, that hand had never gain'd 

So great a fame, or done a deed so bold. 

Or: 

The failing hand the greater glory found ; 
Had it not err'd, it had been less renown'd. 

(B) 

Qui nunc Caosareae lusus spectatur arenae, 

Temporibus Bruti gloria summa fuit. 
Aspicis, ut teneat flammas, poenaque fruatur 

Fortis, et attonito regnet in igne manus ! 
Ipse sui spectator adest, et nobile dextrae 

Funus amat : totis pascitur ilia sacris. 
Quod, nisi rapta foret nolenti poena, parabat 

Saevior in lassos ire sinistra focos. 
Scire piget, post tale decus, quid fecerit ante : 

Quam vidi, satis est hanc mihi nosse manum. 

That which is now a spectacle of the imperial arena, 
was, in the days of Brutus, a glorious achievement. Be- 



so 



GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. 



LCh. 



hold how his hand grasps the flames, and seems to receive 
pleasure from its own punishment. The man is a spectator 
of himself ; he is in love with the noble destruction of his 
own right hand. His left hand also would have been 
plunged into the fire with which his right was consumed, 
but that the means of punishment were snatched from him 
against his will. After such an exploit, it were a pity to 
inquire into the crimes which he may have formerly com- 
mitted. It is enough for me to know that hand which I 
have witnessed with admiration. 

(C) 

In matutina nuper spectatus arena 

Mucins, imposuit qui sua membra focis ; 

Si patiens fortisque tibi durusque videtur, 
Abderitanse pectora plebis habes. 

Nam, cum dicatur, tunica prsesente molesta ; 
Ure manum : plus est dicere, Non facio. 

If you deem that Mucins, who recently thrust his hand 
into the fire at a morning exhibition of the arena, a prodigy 
of valor and endurance, you are as silly as the people of 
Abdera. For if a pitchy tunic be brought near a culprit, 
it is easier for him to obey a command to burn his own 
hand, and thereby avoid death, than passively to refuse 
to sacrifice^ and consequently have his whole body burnt. 



The translation of the first Epigram is by the Provost of Eton ; but the 
two concluding lines by Fletcher appear to express the original with 
more closeness and spirit. Scaliger has an Epigram on the subject, in 
which he makes Mucins disclaim his own hand because it had not proved 
the hand of his country. 

The exploit of Mucins Scsevola is related, or rather painted, by Livy 
(Lib. n. ch. xii.). The historian mentions that Scsevola's mistake arose 
from seeing the man whom he attacked delivering pay to the troops. 
Upon being seized and brought before King Porsena, "Behold," said 
Mucins, " what little account is made of the body by those who have in 
view the attainment of great glory." Whereupon, thrusting his right hand 
into a chafing-dish of coals which had been kindled for the purpose of a 
sacrifice, he held it there to burn, as if he were void of all sense of pain. 
On which the King, astonished by such undaunted courage, leaped from 
his seatj and ordered the youth to be removed from the altar. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 31 

Mucius, from his intrepid sacrifice of his right hand, acquired the 
name of Scsevola, which, in old Latin, signified a left-handed person ; and 
he received for a reward a tract of land, which, in Livy's time, went by 
the name of the Mucian Meadows. It is remarkable that Yhgil, in his 
eighth uEneid, when enumerating the early heroes and heroines of Rome, 

kand among them Horatius Codes and Claelia, distinguished by acts of 
yalour in the war with Porsena, omits any mention of Mucius Scsevola. 
Dr Malkin, in his Classical Disquisitions, notices that it appears from 
Livy's relation of the achievement of Mucius, that he was ashamed of the 
principle of assassination which it countenances. Livy remarks that the 
■desperate condition of the city justified the crime (Fortuna tum nobis 
crimen adfirmante). 
Niebuhr adverts to particulars in the story of Mucius Scsevola, which 
appear to be standing figures of speech in most of the old lays of Rome. 
Mr (Conversation) Sharpe, in his Essays, notices a saying of Home 
Tooke, concerning intellectual philosophy, " That he had become better 
acquainted with the country, through his having had the good luck some- 
times to lose his way," observing with the text, " Si non errasset, fecerat 
iUe minus.'' 

The second Epigram is a striking example of the barbarities in which 
the Romans took delight at their theatres; making theatrical repre- 
sentations of horrible forms of death or torture. The action exhibits 
extraordinary fortitude, and seems to have obliterated in the minds of the 
audience all consideration of the malefactors' guilt. The occm-rence also 
evinces the pride with which the Romans recurred to the exploits of 
their early history. This Epigram is cited in the 177th No. of the 
Tatler, as illustrating a reflection that true glory will never attend any- 
thing but truth; and that the very same action done from difi*erent 
motives may merit a very diff'erent degree of applause. 

The third Epigram is very interesting, if it be susceptible of a meaning 
which some critics think it bears, viz. that the expression, " Non facio," 
means "I do not sacrifice." Whereas, when a Christian who had been 
led out to be burnt, said " facio," he was immediately liberated. It is 
known that a Christian was exempted from capital punishment if he scat- 
tered frankincense upon an altar. The pitchy shirt was used for burn- 
ing Christians. Nero, we learn from Tacitus, admitted the populace of 
Rome into his gardens to witness a nocturnal illumination of Christians 
burnt alive in pitchy tunics. Tertullian mentions that it was not uncom- 
mon to bm-n Christians for the purpose of a spectacle, making a pitchy 
shirt represent the poisoned vestment in which Hercules was tortured, 
and compelling the Christian who was to be burnt, to act upon the 
theatre the part of Hercules. 

In the reign of Queen Mary, one Edward Underbill was burnt upon 
Tower Hill for heresy. Shortly before his execution he was importuned 
by Bishop Bonner to embrace the Roman Catholic religion, and thus 
save bis life. But he replied that " when the spirit has once asserted its 



32 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

superiority over the flesh, the body can feel no pain ; and to prove that 
I have no sense of suffering, I will myself administer the torture." So 
saying, and raising with some difficulty his arm that had been stiffened 
by the rack, he held his hand over the flame of a lamp that stood upon the 
table before him, until the veins shrunk and burst. During this dreadful 
trial his countenance underwent no change, and if Bonner had not with- 
drawn the lamp, he would have allowed his hand to be entirely con- 
sumed. 



XXII. 

THE FALL OF RUFINUS. 

Saepe mihi dubiam traxit sententia mentem, 
Curarent superi terras, an nullus inesset 
Hector, et incerto fluerent mortalia casu. 
Nam cum dispositi quaesissem foedera mundi, 
Prsescriptosque mari fines, annique meatus, 
Et lucis noctisque vices ; tunc omnia rebar 
Consilio firmata dei, qui lege moveri 
Sidera, qui fruges diverso tempore nasci, 
Qui variam Phoeben alieno jusserit igni 
Compleri, solemque suo : porrexerit undis 
Littora : tellurem medio libraverit axe. 
Sed cum res hominum tanta caligine volvi 
Adspicerem, Isetosque diu florere nocentes, 
Vexarique pios ; rursus labefacta cadebat 
Eelligio, causajque viam non sponte sequebar 
Alterius, vacuo qu^ currere semina motu 
Affirmat, magnumque novas per inane figuras 
Fortuna, non arte, regi ; quse Numina sensu 
Ambiguo vel nulla putat, vel nescia nostri. 
Abstulit hunc tandem Rufini poena tumultum, 
Absolvitque deos. Jam non ad culmina rerum 
Injustos crevisse queror : tolluntur in altum, 
Ut lapsu graviore ruant. Vos pandite vati, 
Pierides, quo tanta lues eruperit ortu. 

Two adverse sentiments, with doubts combined, 
Have oft divided my unsettled mind : — 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 33 

K oe'r this orb the Powers above have sway, 

Or man be blindly left to grope his way ? 

For when the mundane harmony I knew ; — 

The ocean limited : — the seasons true ; — 

The regular return of day and night : 

I cried — a God directs with prescient light. 

The stars his laws observe ; — the fruits appear, 

In turn, at different periods of the year ; 

Inconstant Phoebe freely borrows rays ; 

And Sol, his own resplendent beams, displays ; 

The wavy waters are by shores controlled ; 

And, balanced on its axis. Earth is rolled. 

But when the lot of human kind I found 

Involved in mazy darkness spread around ; 

Crime revelling in joy and plenteous store. 

While suif 'ring Virtue dire distresses bore : 

Religion, weakened, lost again her sway, 

And, with regret, I turned another way. 

All Nature's elements, in empty space. 

At random move and various figures trace ; 

No heavenly pow'r, but Chance appears to guide ; 

No gods ; — or mortals' actions they deride. 

Rufinus dead! — my mind's at length relieved; 
Absolved the deities by what's achieved; 
No wretch, to honours raised, shall me appal : 
The higher carried, greater is the fall. 



This is what Gibbon calls "the beautiful exordium'* of Claudian's 
poem on Rufinus. Gibbon adds, that the poet proceeds, in a subsequent 
part of his poem, to " perform the dissection of Rufinus with the savage 
coolness of an anatomist." Rufinus was the prime minister of the Em- 
peror Theodosius. After a long enjoyment of power, which he exercised 
with great treachery and rapacity, he was killed by the soldiers, who car- 
ried his head and hand round the camp in procession, crying, " Charity ! 
Charity ! to the hand that could never get enough." The transaction is 
detailed by Gibbon with consummate talent for description. The philo- 
sophical reflections of the poet are discussed in Bayle, Art. Rujin. The 
doubts of a superintending Providence are a favourite theme with several 
distinguished heathen poets; whether arising from the permission of 
successful criminality, as in the case of Rufinus, the premature deaths of 
illustrious men, as in the instance of Tibullus, according to Ovid, and 

3 



34 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Pompey, according to Lucan, Quintilian's son, according to his father ; 
or even from better fortune in monuments, as, according to Martial, 
from Cato having a small tomb, Pompey none at all, whilst the barber 
Licinus enjoyed a magnificent mausoleum. Milton, in his Sampson Ago- 
nistes, contrasts the regularity of nature with the rises and falls of the 
champions of the commonwealth. 



XXIII. 
CRUELTIES OF THE ROMAN AMPHITHEATRE. 

Orpheus. 

Quidquid in Orpheo Rhodope spectasse theatre 

Dicitur, exhibuit, Caesar, arena tibi. 
Repserunt scopuli, mirandaque silva cueurrit. 

Quale fuisse nemus ereditur Hesperidum. 
Adfuit immixtum peeudum genus omne ferarum, 

Et supra vatem multa pependit avis. 
Ipse sed ingrato jacuit laceratus ab urso. 

Hasc tamen ut res est facta, ita ficta alia est. 

The wonders Orpheus wrought on Thracian ground. 
Great Caesar, in thy theatre are found. 
To Music's sound tall rocks and mountains move. 
And trees start up that match th' Hesperian grove. 
The bestial tribes, through distant woods that roam. 
Here meet in crowds, and wond'ring find a home. 
And as in fiction once, so now in truth, 
Orpheus is mangled by a bear's fell tooth. 

Laureolus 

Qualiter in Scythica religatus rupe Prometheus 

Assiduam nimio pectore pavit avem : 
Nuda Caledonio sic pectora prsebuit urso, 

Non falsa pendens in cruce Laureolus. 
Vivebant laceri membris stillantibus artus, 

Inque omni nusquam corpore corpus erat. 
Denique supplicium dederat necis ille paternae, 

Yel domini jugulum foderat ense nocens. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 35 

Templa vel arcano demens spoliaverat auro ; 

Subdiderat ssevas vel tibi, Eoma, faces. 
Vicerat antiquse sceleratus erimina famse, 

In quo, quae fuerat fabula, poena fuit. 

Like as Prometheus was chained to a rock, whilst a 
vulture with unassuaged voracity was devouring his breast, 
so Laureolus on the stage, whilst he was stretched on a 
real cross, presented his breast to be torn by a Caledonian 
bear. He had probably been a parricide, or had killed a 
master^ or had raised the torch of an incendiary to fire 
Rome. His guilt must have surpassed in enormity any 
thing recorded in the annals of crime ; since what was 
designed for a drama was converted into a form of dread- 
ful punishment. 

The first Epigram indicates that the Amphitheatre was decorated with 
scenery, so as to represent the rocky and woody region in which Orpheus 
was fabled to have been torn to pieces. A malefactor was placed in the 
midst of this scenery, habited as Orpheus, and was compelled to play 
upon a lyre until he was mangled by a bear. 

The machinery in the ancient amphitheatres was Tery surprising and 
magnificent. Sometimes the whole arena suddenly disappeared, and 
from the chasm formed by its fall rose orchards and forests filled with 
wild beasts. These changes were produced by the application of various 
machines called pegmata, which rose and swelled sometimes to a prodi- 
gious extent and elevation. Claudian mentions exhibitions of flames that 
played round the machinery without damaging it. Sometimes perfumes, 
as balsam and saffron- water, were sprinkled in showers upon the audience. 

Laureolus was the principal character in a favourite melodrama at 
Rome. He was a robber, and ended his career by being crucified. Juve- 
nal observes of a young patrician, who was fond of acting the part on the 
public stage, that he deserved a i^eal cross. Martial represents a real 
crucifixion of a malefactor who was forced to act the part of Laureolus. 
It appears from other Epigrams of ^lartial, that the story of Daedalus and 
Icarus was in a similar way often made tragical in the Roman Amphi- 
theatres ; and Suetonius mentions that on one occasion Nero was covered 
with the blood of Icarus, who, after his wings melted, fell too close to 
the emperor. The emperors not unfrequently ordered persons to be 
taken from their places in the theatre, and thrown to wild beasts on 
account of some unguarded exclamation, or because they had mismanaged 
the scenery entrusted to their care. If the victims protested their inno- 
cence, they were sometimes fetched back from the arena, their tongues 
cut out, and themselves cast again among the wild beasts. 

3—2 



36 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 



XXIV. 

ON THE WOMEN WHO FOUGHT WITH WILD BEASTS IN 
THE AMPHITHEATRE. 

Belliger invictis quod Mars tibi saevit in armis, 
Non satis est, Caesar, saevit et ipsa Venus. 

Prostratum Nemees et vasta in valle leonem, 
Nobile et Herculeum fama eanebat opus. 

Prisca fides taceat : nam post tua munera, Caesar, 
Haec jam feminea vidimus acta manu. 

It does not suffice, O Caesar, that Mars brandishes his 
arms at your command: Venus also becomes warlike. 
History has celebrated the labour of Hercules in slaying 
the NemaBan lion ; but, to strike antiquity dumb, at your 
shows, O Caesar, such exploits are achieved by female 
hands. 

These female gladiators are noticed by Tacitus, Suetonius, and Juve- 
nal. Statius thus celebrates their masculine exploits : 

Mid the noise of this new unaccustomed delight. 
See ! the women engage in a masculine fight, 
As, astonished, their skirmishing light you behold. 
In their weapons unpractised, but wantonly bold. 
You would think that by barbarous Phasis afar 
The fierce troops of Thermodon encountered in war. 



I 



XXV. 

NAUMACHIiE. 



Si quis ades longis serus spectator ab oris, 
Cui lux prima sacri muneris ista fuit, 

Ne te decipiat ratibus navalis Enyo, 

Et par unda fretis ; hie modo terra fuit. 

Non credis ? spectes, dum laxent aequora Martem 
Parva mora est : dices, hie modo pontus erat. 



I] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 37 

Be not deceiv'd though naval battles here, 
And billows like the rolling main appear. 
The sea thou now behold'st was land of late : 
Believ'st thou not ? A few short moments wait 
Till cease the ships to war, the waves to flow, 
And thou shalt say, 'Twas sea not long ago. 

Martial relates a variety of spectacles exhibited upon water intro- 
duced into the amphitheatre The story of Hero and Leander was a 
favourite exhibition on these occasions. One writer mentions a pegma in 
the form of a ship, which, while floating in the amphitheatre, struck 
the ground as if wrecked, and opening, let loose some hundreds of wild 
beasts, mixed with aquatic animals, who swam, fought, or played in the 
waters, till the water was suddenly let out, the beasts slain, and the ship 
restored to its original form. Tacitus relates that in the ^aumachicB cele- 
brated by the Emperor Claudius on the Fucine Lake there were 19,000 
combatants, and about fifty ships on each side. Suetonius mentions that 
the signal for charge was given by a silver triton, raised by mechanism. 
He writes, that upon the gladiators on board the fleet crying out, " Fare- 
well ! noble emperor, dying men salute you !" and his replying, "Fare- 
well to you all," (avete, the last words used at funeral rites), they all 
refused to fight, as if the emperor, in what he had said, had excused 
them. Upon this incident Claudius was in doubt whether he should not 
destroy them all by fire and sword. At last, leaping from his seat, and 
running along the side of the lake, partly by fair words, and partly by 
threats, he persuaded them to engage. 



XXVI. 

CATO REFUSING TO CONSULT THE ORACLE OF 
JUPITER AMMON. 

Stabant ante fores populi, quos miserat Eos, 
Cornigerique Jovis monitu nova fata petebant : 
Sed Latio cessere duci : comitesque Catonem 
Orant, exploret Libycum memorata per orbem 
Numina, de fama tarn longi judicet aevi. 
Maximus hortator scrutandi voce deorum 
Eventus Labienus erat. Sors obtulit, inquit, 
Et fortuna viae tarn magni numinis ora, 



38 , GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Consiliumque dei : tanto duce possumus uti 

Per Syrtes, bellique datos cognoscere casus, 

Nam cui crediderim superos arcana daturos, 

Dicturosque magis, quam sancto, vera, Catoni? 

Certe vita tibi semper directa supernas 

Ad leges, sequerisque deum. I>atur eece loquendi 

Cum Jove libertas : inquire in fata nefandi 

Caesaris, et patriae ventures excute mores : 

Jure suo populis uti legumque licebit, 

An bellum civile perit. Tua pectora sacra 

Voce reple : durae saltem virtutis amator 

Quaere quid est virtus, et posce exemplar honesti. 

Ille deo plenus, tacita quem mente gerebat, 
Effudit dignas adytis e pectore voces. 
Quid quaeri, Labiene, jubes ? an liber in armis 
Occubuisse velim potius, quam regna videre ? 
An sit vita nihil, sed longam diiferat aetas ? 
An noceat vis nulla bono ? Fortunaque perdat 
Opposita virtute minas ? laudandaque velle 
Sit satis, et nun quam successu crescat honestum ? 
Seimus, et haec nobis non altius inseret Amnion, 
Haeremus cuncti superis, temploque tacente 
Nil facimus non sponte dei : nee vocibus uUis 
Numen eget : dixitque semel nascentibus auctor 
Quicquid scire licet : steriles nee legit arenas, 
Ut caneret paucis, mersitque hoc pulvere verum : 
Estne dei sedes nisi terra, et pontus, et aer, 
Et coelum, et virtus ? superos quid quaerimus ultra ? 
Jupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris. 
Sortilegis egeant dubii, semperque futuris 
Casibus ancipites : me non oracula certum, 
Sed mors certa facit : pavido fortique cadendum est. 
Hoc satis est dixisse Jovem. Sic ille profatur : 
Servataque fide templi discedit ab aris, 
Non exploratum populis Ammona relinquens. 

Before the temple's entrance, at the gate, 
Attending crowds of Eastern pilgrims wait : 
These from the horned god expect relief: 
But all give way before the Latian chief. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 39 

His host (as crowds are superstitious still) 
Curious of fate, of future good and ill, 
And fond to prove prophetic Amnion's skill, 
Intreat their leader to the god would go. 
And from his oracle Rome's fortunes know : 
But Labienus chief the thought approv'd. 
And thus the common suit to Cato mov'd : 

Chance, and the fortune of the way, he said, 
Have brought Jove's sacred counsels to our aid : 
This greatest of the gods, this mighty chief, 
In each distress shall be a sure relief ; 
Shall point the distant dangers from afar. 
And teach the future fortunes of the war. 
To thee, O Cato ! pious ! wise ! and just ! 
Their dark decrees the cautious gods shall trust ; 
To thee their fore-determin'd will shall tell : 
Their will has been thy law, and thou hast kept it well. 
Fate bids thee now the noble thought improve ; 
Fate brings thee here to meet and talk with Jove. 
Inquire betimes, what various chance shall come 
To impious Caesar, and thy native Rome ; 
Try to avert, at least, thy country's doom. 
Ask if these arms our freedom shall restore : 
Or else if laws and right shall be no more. 
Be thy great breast with sacred knowledge fraught, 
To lead us in the wandering maze of thought ; 
Thou, that to virtue ever wert inclin'd. 
Learn what it is, how certainly defin'd. 
And leave some perfect rule to guide mankind. 

Full of the god that dwelt within his breast. 
The hero thus his secret mind express'd. 
And in-born truths reveal'd ; truths which might well 
Become ev'n oracles themselves to tell. 

What, Labienus, would thy fond desire 
Of horned Jove's prophetic shrine inquire ? 
Whether to seek in arms a glorious doom. 
Or basely live, and be a king in Rome ? 
If life be nothing more than death's delay. 
If impious force can honest minds dismay, 



40 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Or probity may fortune's frown disdain ; 

If well to mean is all that virtue can ; 

And right, dependent on itself alone, 

Gains no addition from success ? — 'Tis known : 

Fix'd in my heart these constant truths I bear, 

And Ammon cannot write them deeper there. 

Our souls, allied to God, within them feel 

The secret dictates of the Almighty will ; 

This is his voice, be this our oracle. 

When first his breath the seeds of life instill'd, 

All that we ought to know was then reveal'd. 

Nor can we think the Omnipresent mind 

Has truth to Libya's desert sands confin'd. 

There, known to few, obscur'd, and lost, to lie — 

Is there a temple of the Deity, 

Except earth, sea, and air, yon azure pole ; 

And chief, his holiest shrine, the virtuous soul ? 

Where'er the eye can pierce, the feet can move, 

This wide, this boundless universe is Jove. 

Let abject minds, that doubt because they fear, 

With pious awe to juggling priests repair ; 

I credit not what lying prophets tell — 

Death is the only certain oracle. 

Cowards and brave must die one destin'd hour — 

This Jove has told ; he needs not tell us more. 

The first part of the English version is from Rowe, the latter part 
beginning with the line, " What, Labienus, would thy soul desire," is from 
Lord Lyttleton. The sentiments ascribed to Cato are very remarkable as 
regards the theological opinions of the ancients. They were a part of the 
philosophical system of the Stoics. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 41 

XXVII. 
CATO AT THE FLORAL GAMES. 

Nosses jocosae dulce cum sacrum Florae, 
Festosque lusus, et licentiam vulgi, 
Cur in theatrum, Cato severe, venisti ? 
An ideo tantum veneras, ut exires ? 

When thou didst know the merry feast 

Of jocund Flora was at best, 

Our solemn sports, how loosely free, 

And debonair the vulgar be. 

Strict Cato, why didst thou intrude 

Into the seated multitude ? 

Was it thy frolic here alone 

Only to enter, and be gone ? 

Valerius Maximus mentions that when it was wished to describe a 
citizen as being remarkable for virtue, it was usual to call him a Cato. 
And he relates the story of the floral games. He says that Cato having 
learnt from Favonius who was sitting next to him, that the audience 
were ashamed to call for certain indecencies to be exhibited which were 
customary at the floral games, he walked out of the theatre. L^pon which 
there ensued a general burst of applause ; whereby, observes Valerius, the 
people confessed that greater respect was due to Cato than to all the rest 
of the audience who remained to witness what they were unwilling should 
be represented in the presence of Cato. This occurrence is the subject 
of No. 446 of the Spectator. The third line of the Epigram is the 
motto of No. 122 of the Tatler, with reference to the appearance of Mr 
Isaac Bickerstaff' at Drury Lane theatre. The more remarkable demon- 
strations of public feeling at the Roman theatres afford matter for inte- 
resting reflection. The opinions concerning Cato, too, throw important 
light on the moral sentiments of the ancients. Julius Csesar mentions 
that persons who met Cato in a state .of intoxication, blushed, when they 
discovered who he was ; adding, you would have thought that Cato had 
detected them, and not they Cato. Pliny remarks, Could he place the 
dignity of Cato in a stronger light than making him thus venerable even 
in his cups ? 



42 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXYIII. 
C^SAR PASSING THE RUBICON. 

Jam gelidas Caesar cursu superaverat Alpes, 

Ingentesque animo motus, bellumque futurum 

Ceperat. Ut ventum est parvi Eubiconis ad undas, 

Ingens visa duci patriae trepidantis imago, 

Clara per obscuram vultu moestissima noctem, 

Turrigero canos efFundens vertice crines, 

Caesarie lacera, nudisque adstare laeertis, 

Et gemitu permixta loqui : Quo tenditis ultra ? 

Quo fertis mea signa, viri ? si jure venitis, 

Si eives, hueusque licet. Tunc perculit horror 

Membra ducis, riguere comae, gressumque coercens 

Languor in extrema tenuit vestigia ripa. 

* * * * * 

Fonte cadit modico, parvisque impellitur undis 
Puniceus Rubicon, cum fervida canduit aestas : 
Perque imas serpit valles, et Gallica certus 
Limes ab Ausoniis disterminat arva colonis. 
Tunc vires praebebat hyems, atque auxerat undas 
Tertia jam gravido pluvialis Cynthia cornu, 
Et madidis Euri resolutae flatibus Alpes. 
Primus in obliquum sonipes opponitur amnem, 
Excepturus aquas, molli tum cetera rumpit 
Turba vado fracti faciles jam fluminis undas. 
Caesar ut adversum superato gurgite ripam 
Attigit, Hesperiae vetitis et constitit arvis, 
Hie, ait, hie, paeem, temerataque jura relinquo ; 
Te, Fortuna, sequor ; procul hinc jam foedera sunto. 
Credidimus fatis : utendum est judice bello. 
Sic fatus, noctis tenebris rapit agmina ductor 
Impiger, et torto Balearis verbere fundse 
Ocior, et missa Parthi post terga sagitta : 
Vicinumque minax invadit Ariminum, ut ignes 
Solis Lucifero fugiebant astra relicto. 
Jamque dies primos belli visura tumultus 
Exoritur : seu sponte deum, seu turbidus Auster 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 43 

Impulerat, moestam tenuerunt nubila lucem. 
Constitit ut capto jussus deponere miles 
Signa foro, stridor lituum, clangorque tubarum 
Non pia concinuit cum rauco classica eornu. 
Rupta quies populi, stratisque excita juventus 
Diripiunt sacris affixa penatibus arma, 
Quae pax longa dabat : nuda jam crate fluentes 
Invadunt clypeos, curvataque cuspide pila, 
Et scabros nigrae morsu rubiginis enses. 
Ut notae fulsere aquilae Romanaque signa, 
Et celsus medio conspectus in agmine Caesar, 
Diriguere metu, gelidos pavor alligat artus. 

Now Caesar, marching swift with winged haste, 
The summits of the frozen Alps had past ; 
"With vast events and enterprises fraught, 
And future wars revolving in his thought. 
Now near the banks of Rubicon he stood ; 
When lo ! as he survey'd the narrow flood, 
Amidst the dusky horrors of the night, 
A wondrous vision stood confest to sight. 
Her awful head Rome's reverend image rear'd, 
Trembling and sad the matron form appear'd ; 
A towery crown her hoary temples bound. 
And her torn tresses rudely hung around ; 
Her naked arms uplifted ere she spoke. 
Then groaning thus the mournful silence broke. 
Presumptuous men ! oh, whither do you run ? 
Oh, whither bear you these my ensigns on ? 
If friends to right, if citizens of Rome, 
Here to your utmost barrier are you come. 
She said ; and sunk within the closing shade : 
Astonishment and dread the chief invade ; 
Stiff rose his starting hair, he stood dismay'd, 
And on the bank his slackening steps were stay'd. 
***** 

While with hot skies the fervent summer glows. 
The Rubicon an humble river flows ; 
Through lowly vales he cuts his winding way, 
And rolls his ruddy waters to the sea. 



44 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

His bank on either side a limit stands, 

Between the Gallic and Ausonian lands. 

But stronger now the wintery torrent grows. 

The wetting winds had thaw'd the Alpine snows, 

And Cynthia rising with a blunted beam 

In the third circle, drove her watery team, 

A signal sure to raise the swelling stream. 

For this, to stem the rapid water's course 

First plung'd amidst the flood the bolder horse : 

With strength oppos'd against the stream they lead, 

While to the smoother ford the foot with ease succeed. 

The leader now had pass'd the torrent o'er. 
And reach'd fair Italy's forbidden shore : 
Then rearing on the hostile bank his head. 
Here farewell peace and injur''d laws ! (he said.) 
Since faith is broke, and leagues are set aside, 
Henceforth thou, goddess fortune, art my guide ; 
Let fate and war the great event decide. 
He spoke ; and, on the dreadful task intent. 
Speedy to near Ariminum he bent ; 
To him the Balearic sling is slow, 
And the shaft loiters from the Parthian bow. 
With eager marches swift he reach'd the town, 
As the shades fled, the sinking stars were gone. 
And Lucifer the last was left alone. 
At length the morn, the dreadful morn arose. 
Whose beams the first tumultuous rage disclose : 
Whether the stormy south prolong'd the night. 
Or the good gods abhorr'd the impious sight. 
The clouds awhile withheld the mournful light. 
To the mid forum on the soldier pass'd. 
There halted, and his victor ensigns plac'd : 
With dire alarms from band to band around. 
The fife, hoarse horn, and rattling trumpets sound. 
The starting citizens uprear their heads ; 
The lustier youth at once forsake their beds ; 
Hasty they snatch the weapons, which among 
Their household gods in peace had rested long ; 
Old bucklers of the covering hides bereft, 
The mouldering frames disjoin'd and barely left ; 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 45 

Swords with foul rust indented deep they take, 
And useless spears with points inverted shake. 
Soon as their crests the Koman eagles rear'd, 
And Caesar high above the rest appear'd ; 
Each trembling heart with secret horror shook. 

The spectral apparition of the genius of Rome may probably have 
suggested to Camoens his sublimer conception of the Spirit of the Cape. 
It appears from Eustace, that there are two passages over the Rubicon, 
a name which has been changed by the corruptions of centuries into that 
of Rugone. Eustace fixes upon the nearer passage to the sea, in the 
direct road between Ravenna and Rimini (Ariminium), as the one in 
crossing which Csesar decided the fate of Rome. 

Less interesting, indeed, in an historical point of view, but equal at 
least in poetical merit, are two other passages in the Pharsalia, descrip- 
tive of Caesar's exploits. In one of these Lucan draws a very sombre and 
appalling picture of a sacred grove of the Gauls, inhabited neither by 
fauns nor nymphs, and where no bird was heard to warble, but every tree 
was lustrated with human gore. Csesar's soldiers were struck with 
horror, and hesitated to obey his commands for cutting down the 
grove : 

Csesar perceived the spreading fear to grow, 
Then eager caught an axe, and aim*d a blow. 
Deep sunk within a violated oak 
The wounding edge, and thus the warrior spoke : 
" Now let no doubting hand the task decline ; 
Cut you the wood, and let the guilt be mine." 

The other passage is descriptive of the circumstance that Caesar, who 
was in Epirus with a part of his army, and foresaw the probability of being 
shortly attacked by Pompey, left his camp by night, and ventured over a 
tempestuous sea in a small bark to Italy, that he might hasten the trans- 
port of the remainder of his forces which were collecting at Brundusium. 
Lucan is very great in relating Csesar's interview at night with the pilot, 
his persuasions to induce him to put to sea, notwithstanding the threaten- 
ing appearances of the sky, a terrific storm by which the little bark is 
tempest-tost, and the encouragements of Csesar to his terrified com- 
panion : 

Let winds and seas loud wars at freedom wage. 
And waste upon themselves their empty rage : 
A stronger, mightier demon is thy friend. 
Thou and thy bark on Ccesar's fate depend. 



46 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXIX. 

DEATH OF POMPEY. 

Jam venerat hora9 
Terminus extremse, Phariamque ablatus in alnum 
Perdiderat jam jura sui. Tum stringere ferrum 
Regia monstra parant. Ut vidit cominus enses, 
Involvit vultus : atque indignatus apertum 
Fortunse prsebere caput, tunc lumina pressit, 
Continuitque animam, ne quas eiFundere voces 
Posset, et seternam fletu corrumpere famam. 
At postquam mucrone latus funestus Achillas 

Perfodit, nullo gemitu consensit ad ictum. 

***** 

At Magni cum terga sonent et pectora ferro, 
Permansisse decus sacrse venerabile formse, 
Iratamque deis faciem, nihil ultima mortis 
Ex habitu vultuque viri mutasse, fatentur 
Qui lacerum videre caput. Nam saavus in ipso 
Septimius sceleris majus scelus invenit actu : 
Ac retegit sacros, scisso velamine, vultus 
Semianimis Magni, spirantiaque occupat ora, 
Collaque in obliquo ponit languentia transtro. 
Tunc nervos venasque secat, nodosaque frangit 
Ossa diu : nondum artis erat caput ense rotare. 
At postquam trunco cervix abscisa recessit, 
Vindicat hoc Pharius dextra gestare satelles. 
Degener, atque operae miles Romanse secundae, 
Pompeii diro sacrum caput ense recidis, 
Ut non ipse feras ? o summi fata pudoris ! 
Impius ut Magnum nosset puer, ilia verenda 
Regibus, hirta coma, et generosa fronte decora 
Caesaries compressa manu est ; Pharioque veruto, 
Dum vivunt vultus, atque os in murmura pulsant 
Singultus animas, dum lumina nuda rigescunt, 
Suffixum caput est, quo nunquam bella jubente 
Pax fuit ; hoc leges, campumque, et rostra movebat. 
Hac facie, Fortuna, tibi, Romana, placebas. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 47 

Nec satis infando fuit hoc vidisse tyranno : 
Vult sceleri superesse fidem. Tunc arte nefanda 
Submota est capiti tabes, raptoque cerebro 
Adsiccata cutis, putrisque effluxit ab alto 
Humor, et infuso facies solidata veneno est. 

Now in the boat defenceless Pompey sate, 

Surrounded and abandoned to his fate. 

Nor long they hold him in their power, aboard, 

Ere every villain drew his ruthless sword : 

The Chief perceiv'd their purpose soon, and spread 

His Roman gown, with patience, o'er his head : 

And when the curs'd Achillas pierc'd his breast. 

His rising indignation close repress'd. 

No sighs, no groans, his dignity profan'd, 

No tears his still unsuUy'd glory stain'd : 

Unmov'd and firm he fix'd him on his seat. 

And died, as when he liv'd and conquer'd, great. 

***** 

The bloody business now complete and done, 
New furies urge the fierce Septimius on. 
He rends the robe that veiPd the hero's head, 
And to full view expos'd the recent dead ; 
Hard in his horrid gripe the face he press'd. 
While yet the quivering muscles life confess'd : 
He drew the dragging body down with haste. 
Then cross a rower's seat the neck he plac'd ; 
There, awkward, haggling, he divides the bone, 
(The headsman's art but then was rudely known). 
Straight on the spoil his Pharian partner flies, 
And robs the heartless villain of his prize. 
The head, his trophy, proud Achillas bears ; 
Septimius an inferior drudge appears, 
And in the meaner mischief poorly shares. 
Caught by the venerable locks, which grow 
In hoary ringlets on his generous brow. 
To Egypt's impious king that head they bear. 
That laurels us'd to bind, and monarchs fear. 
Those sacred lips, and that commanding tongue, 
On which the listening forum oft has hung ; 



48 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

That tongue which could the world with ease restrain, 
And ne'er commanded war or peace in vain ; 
That face, in which success came smiling home, 
And doubled every joy it brought to Rome : 
Now pale and wan, is fix'd upon a spear. 
And borne, for public view, aloft in air. 

Lucan, in the eighth book of his poem, describes Pompey's flight after 
the battle of Pharsalia, his meeting with Cornelia — after which he 
represents Pompey as repairing to the coast of Egypt, where he is 
induced by treachery to quit his ship and come into a boat. As the boat 
is making towards the shore, Pompey is murdered in the sight of Cor- 
nelia, his son, and the rest of his fleet. His head is cut off and carried 
on a spear to king Ptolemy, who subsequently sends it as a present to 
Csesar. Pompe/s body is found floating near the shore by one of his 
freedmen, who collects a few planks from a shipwrecked vessel, and 
performs the funeral rites. All these incidents, and the feelings of Cor- 
nelia on her husband leaving her to enter the boat, and afterwards on 
beholding his murder, are depictured with great poetical talent. 

Martial has an Epigram regarding the circumstance that Pompey, if 
buried at all, was buried in Africa, and his sons in Europe and Asia. 
He observes that " so great a ruin could not lie in one quarter of the 
globe." This idea is followed in an epitaph on Richard Co&ur de Lion, who 
directed by his will that his heart should be sent to the cathedral of 
Rouen, his "ignoble parts" be left among the rebellious Poictevans, and 
that his body should be buried at the feet of his father at Fontevraud. 
There is a monument at Alba, which goes by the name of Pompey's 
tomb, and Plutarch relates that Cornelia buried his ashes there: but 
Lucan considers it a reproach to Rome in his time, that it suffered Egypt 
to possess the remains of Pompey the Great. 

Comeille mentions, in the preface to his Pomp^e, that the perusal of 
Lucan " m'a rendu si amoureux de la force de ses pensees et de la majeste 
de son raisonnement, qu'afin d'en enricher notre langue, j'ai fait cet 
effort pour reduire en poeme dramatique ce qu'il a traite en epique. Tu 
trouvera ici cent ou deux cent vers traduits ou imites de lui." Corneille's 
variations from Lucan may not be always thought improvements, as, for 
example, in reference to the remarkable circumstance of Pompey veiling 
his face : 

D'un des pans de sa robe il couvre son visage, 

A son mauvais destin en aveugle obeit, 

Et dedaigne de voir le del qui le trahit, 

De peur qu'il ne semblat centre une telle offense 

Implorer d'un coup d'ceil son aide et sa vengeance. 

Aucun gemissement a son coeur echappe, 

Ne le montre en mourant digne d'Hrefrappe. 



1 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 49 

XXX. 

SUTTEES. 

Felix Eois lex funeris una maritis, 

Quos Aurora suis rubra colorat equis : 
Namque ubi mortifero jacta est fax ultima lecto, 

Uxorum positis stat pia turba comis. 
Et certamen habent leti, quae viva sequatur 

Conjugium : pudor est non licuisse mori. 
Ardent victrices, et flammae peetora praebent, 

Imponuntque suis ora perusta viris. 

II y a une loi en Orient bien favorable pour les maris, 
e'est ou I'Aurore colore les peuples de la rongeur de ses 
chevaux : car des que le dernier flambeau a mis le feu au 
lit funebre, la pieuse foule des femmes ayant les cheveux 
epars se tient debout, et se disputent a I'envi a qui se brul- 
lera toute vive la premiere pour suivre son mari : et ce 
leur est de la honte quand il ne leur est pas permis de 
mourir. Les victorieuses se jettent dans les flames : et de 
leur visage demi brulle elles donnent des baisers a leurs 
epoux. 

The suppression of the practice of Suttee throughout the British 
dominions in India, is a victory of humanity over national prejudices 
which the most sanguine philanthropists could scarcely have deemed 
attainable, at least in a short time and without political convulsion. 
The practice still prevails out of the pale of the British authority. In 
an instance known by the author, which occurred in one of the petty 
independent states of India, where there was an English Resident, it 
came to the knowledge of the Resident that a widow would shortly burn 
herself on the funeral pile of her husband. The Resident offered to 
convey her away from her husband's relatives free of all expence, and to 
take her to her own family, or settle her in any safe place she preferred. 
The rajah or prince of the territory, performed, what was in the East a 
great mark of condescension, a personal visit to the widow, in order to 
join his entreaties to that of the Resident ; and he offered to give the 
widow an annuity of just the same amount as the English government 
chose to confer. But it was all to no purpose. The widow persisted in 
burning herself, alleging that the subject had often been talked of be- 

4 



50 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

tween herself and her husband, and she considered it a part of her faith 
to him, that their bodies should be consumed by the same fire. 

It is curious that a description of Suttees should be found in Pro- 
pertius, from whom the Latin text is taken. There is an interesting 
Latin poem on the subject by the Rev. G. Booth, in the Oxford Anthology. 
Mr Richardson, an Anglo-Indian poet, has given the following description, 
apparently by an eye-witness. 

Her last fond wishes breathed, a farewell smile 
Is lingering on the calm unclouded brow 
Of yon deluded victim. Firmly now 
She mounts, with dauntless mien, the funeral pile 
Where lies her earthly lord. The Brahmin's guile 
Hath wrought its will — fraternal hands bestow 
The quick death-flame — the crackling embers glow. 
And flakes of hideous smoke the skies defile ! 
The ruthless throng their ready aid supply. 
And pour the kindling oil. The stunning sound 
Of dissonant drums — the priest's exulting cry — 
The failing martyr's pleading voice have drown'd; 
While fiercely-burning rafters fall around, 
And shroud her frame from horror's straining eye ! 

Gay, in a letter to Pope, mentions the incident of two lovers who were 
struck dead by lightning whilst walking together in the fields. They were 
found stiff in death, one of the young man's hands round the female's 
neck, the other raised before her face, as if to screen her from the light- 
ning. Pope wrote the epitaph on the occasion : 

When Eastern lovers feed the funeral fire. 
On the same pile the faithful pair expire. 
Here pitying heav'n that virtue mutual found. 
And blasted both, that it might neither wound. 
Hearts so sincere th' Almighty saw well-pleas'd. 
Sent his own light'ning, and the victims seiz'd. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 51 

XXXI. 

TREATMENT OF SLAVES, 

(A) 
Proscriptum Famulus servavit fronte notatus : 
Non fuit haec Domini vita, sed invidia. 

A domestic slave, who had been branded on the fore- 
head by his master, preserved the life of that master when 
proscribed. I say that the master by that act derived less 
of safety for his person than of opprobrium for his charac- 
ter. 

(B) 

Unus de to to peccaverat orbe comarum 

Annulus, incerta non bene fixus acu, 
Hoc facinus Lalage speculo, quo viderat, ulta est ; 

Et cecidit sectis icta Plecusa comis. 
Define jam, Lalage, tristes ornare capillos ; 

Tangat et insanum nulla puella caput. 
Hoc salamandra notet, vel ssBva novacula nudet ; 

Ut digna speculo fiat imago tuo. 

A single curl belonging to a fold in Lalage's hair had 
got out of place, from not being properly pinned. Lalage 
perceived the crime in her looking-glass, and avenged it 
with the same looking-glass on her waiting-maid Plecusa. 
She felled the poor girl to the ground, and afterwards cut 
off all her hair. Henceforward, Lalage, cease to employ 
waiting-maids for adorning your locks. Cut them off with 
a razor, or eradicate them with salamander's blood, so that 
your looking-glass may (if justice be done the girl and you) 
always reflect a bald head, 

(C) 
Esse negas coctum leporem, poscisque flagella, 
Mavis, Eufe, coquum scindere, quam leporem. 

When you gave your last dinner, Eufus, you protested 
that the hare was underdone ; and you called for the whips. 

4—2 



52 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

I am of opinion that you preferred cutting your cook to 
cutting up your hare. 

The master of the slave, who is the subject of the first Epigram, was 
Antius Restio. He was proscribed by the triumvirate; and whilst his 
house was being pillaged, he made his escape by night. He was, how- 
ever, watched by a slave, whose face he had formerly disfigured by brand- 
ing. The slave accompanied him in his flight, and, having killed an old 
beggar whom he met on the road, and cut oflP his head, prepared a funeral 
pile, and placed the corpse upon it. On the soldiers coming up, and 
inquiring after Antius, the slave pointed to the pile, and told them that 
his master was there burning in expiation of his cruelty to himself. The 
presence of the pile and the decapitated corpse, and the letters branded 
on the slave's forehead, obtained credit for the statement, and Antius's 
life was thus preserved. Numerous other instances of the attachment of 
slaves to their masters are mentioned by Roman writers, especially in a 
chapter on the subject in Valerius Maximus (Lib. vi. c. 8), and in Seneca's 
treatise On Benefits. Marc Antony, after his defeat at Actium, desired 
his slave Eros to kill him : Eros drew his sword, but stabbed himself, and 
fell at his master's feet. A freedman of Pompey prepared and kindled 
his funeral pile, and conveyed his ashes to Cornelia. 

The commentators give various representations of Lalage's cruelty : 
several of them make her murder Plecusa. The enormities inflicted on 
Roman slaves by their masters and mistresses, are forcibly depictured in 
JuyensiVs Satires (Lib. n. Sat. vi. 1. 218 and 476. Lib. v. Sat. xiv. 1. 15). 
The torturing of ladies' maids, which is in progress in the boudoir, whilst 
the lady herself imperturbably continues to rouge her face, is described 
with much vivacity, and the question is discussed whether a slave is a 
man? In book xiv. sect, xlii., and following sections of Tacitus's Annals, 
is the relation of a slave murdering his master, because his liberty had 
been withheld after it had been contracted for. It appears that, by the 
law of Rome, in such a case, every servant in the family was liable to 
capital punishment. The populace were touched with compassion for 
the fate of so many innocent persons of both sexes, and some of tender 
age, and created a tumult. The subject was debated in the senate, and 
Tacitus has preserved the speeches delivered on the occasion. The 
majority of the senate was for letting the law take its course. The 
populace attempted to stay the execution with stones and firebrands, but 
the whole slave-family, men, women, and children, were put to death. 
Pliny, in his Epistles (Lib. iii. Ep. xiv.), relates the details of a murder of 
a master by his slaves in a bath. He notices that the master had been 
in the habit of treating his slaves with a haughtiness and severity which 
shewed him little mindful that his own father had once been a slave. 

Cooks, like waiting-maids, were subject to severe castigations, since 
they outraged the sensuality of men, as much as the Abigails ofibnded 
against the vanity of women. The following extract from the descrip- 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 53 

tion of a Roman supper by Petronius Arbiter will shew the prevalence of 
the custom of scourging cooks on the spot in order to assuage the 
disappointment of guests, though in the particular instance, the purpose 
of the master was not that of blood, but of facetiousness. 

" A full-grown hog was brought to the table. When Trimalchio, after 
looking for a while upon it, said, ' What, are not his entrails taken out ? 
No (so help me Hercules) they are not ! Bring hither, bring hither the 
rogue of a cook.' And when the cook stood hanging his head before us, 
he stammered out that he was so much in haste that he had forgot it. 
*How, forget it?' cried out Trimalchio. ' Strip him:' when in a trice it 
was done, and the cook was set between two torturers. However, we all 
interceded for him, as a fault that might now and then happen. Where- 
upon Trimalchio spoke to the cook : ' It seems you have a very short 
memory ; let us see if you can do it now.' On which the cook, having 
gotten his coat again, took up a knife, and with a feigned trembling 
ripp'd up the hog's belly long and thwart, when immediately from its own 
weight tumbled out a heap of hog's puddings and sausages. After this, 
the company gave a shout, and cried out. Health and prosperity to Tri- 
malchio ! The cook also was presented with wine, a silver coronet, and a 
drinking-goblet on a broad Corinthian plate." 



XXXII. 

MARTIAL'S MANUMISSION OP A DYING SLAVE. 

Ilia manus quondam studiorum fida meorum, 

Et felix domino, notaque Csesaribus, 
Destituit primos virides Demetrius annos : 

Quarta tribus lustris addita messis erat. 
Ne tamen ad Stygias famulus deseenderet umbras, 

Ureret implicitum cum scelerata lues, 
Cavimus ; et domini jus omne remissimus aegro : 

Munere dignus erat eonvaluisse meo. 
Sensit deficiens sua praemia, meque patronum 

Dixit, ad infernas liber iturus aquas. 

That hand to all my labours once so true. 
Which I so lov'd, and which the Caesars knew. 
Forsook the dear Demetrius' blooming prime : 
Three lustres and four harvests all his time. 



54 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

That not to Styx a slave he should descend, 
When fell contagion urged him to his end, 
We free'd with all our rights the pining boy : 
O that the convalescent could enjoy ! 
He tasted his reward, his Patron blest. 
And went a Freeman to eternal rest. 

The following letter of Pliny (Lib. viii. Ep. xvi.) is an interesting com- 
mentary on Martial's Epigram. 

" The sickness which has lately run through my family, and carried off 
several of my domestics, some of them too in the prime of their years, 
has deeply afflicted me. I have two consolations, however, which though 
they are not equal to so considerable a grief, still they are consolations. 
One is, that as I have always very readily manumized my slaves, their 
death does not seem altogether immature, if they lived long enough to 
receive their freedom : the other, that I have allowed them to make a 
kind of will, which I observe as religiously as if they were legally entitled 
to that privilege. I receive and obey their last requests, as so many 
authoritative commands, suffering them to dispose of their effects to 
whom they please; with this single restriction, that they leave them to 
some in my family, which to persons in their station is to be esteemed as 
a sort of commonwealth. But though I endeavour to acquiesce under 
these reflections, yet the same tenderness which led me to shew them 
these indulgences, still breaks out and overpowers my strongest resolu- 
tions. However, I could not wish to be insensible to these soft impres- 
sions of humanity : though the generality of the world, I know, look upon 
losses of this kind in no other view, than as a diminution of their property, 
and fancy by cherishing such an unfeeling temper, they discover a supe- 
rior fortitude and good sense. Their wisdom and magnanimity I shall not 
dispute. But manly, I am sure, they are not; for it is the very criterion 
of true manhood to fed those impressions of sorrow, which it endeavours 
to resist ; and to admit, not to be above the want of consolation. But 
perhaps I have detained you too long upon this subject, — though nob so 
long as I would. There is a certain pleasure in giving vent to one's grief; 
especially when we pour out our sorrow in the bosom of a friend, who will 
approve, or, at least, pardon our tears. Farewell." 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 55 

XXXIII. 

ASSASSINATION OF CICERO. 

Antoni Phario nil objecture Pothino, 

Et levius tabula, quam Cicerone, noeens : 
Quid gladium demens Romana stringis in ora ? 

Hoc admisisset nee Catilina nefas. 
Impius infando miles corrumpitur auro ; 

Et tantis opibus vox tacet una tibi. 
Quid prosunt sacrae pretiosa silentia linguae ? 

Incipient omnes pro Cicerone loqui. 

O Antony ! revile no Pothin now : 
In Tully more, than in a roll, accurst. 

Of the sweet Roman tongue assassin thou ! 
A Catiline thy horror never durst. 

An impious bravo may by gold be won, 

And opulence one voice supprest may buy : 

But ah ! what has the dear-bought silence done ? 
Mankind one tongue will now for Tully try. 

Pothinus was the minister of Ptolemy, who killed Pompey, and pre- 
sented his head to Caesar. Martial obserres that the whole roll of the 
proscription of the triumvirs was less injurious to Rome than the loss of 
Cicero. The concluding sentiment, that the whole world will rise to 
speak for Cicero, is full of vigour. Dr Middleton thus relates the cir- 
cumstances of Cicero's assassination. 

" Cicero was at his Tusculan villa, with his brother and nephew, when 
he first received the news of the proscription, and of their being included 
in it. It was the design of the triumvirate to keep it a secret, if possible, 
to the moment of execution ; in order to surprise those whom they had 
destined to destruction before they were aware of the danger, or had 
time to escape. But some of Cicero's friends found means to give him 
early notice of it ; upon which he set forward presently, with his brother 
and nephew, towards Astura, the nearest villa which he had upon the sea, 
with intent to transport themselves directly out of the reach of their 
enemies. But Quintus, being wholly unprepared for so sudden a voyage, 
resolved to turn back with his son to Rome, in confidence of lying con- 
cealed there, till they could provide money and necessaries for their sup- 
port abroad. Cicero, in the meanwhile, found a vessel ready for him at 



56 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Astura, in which he presently embarked : but the winds being cross and 
turbulent, and the sea wholly uneasy to him, after he had sailed about 
two leagues along the coast, he landed at Circseum, and spent a night 
near that place, in great anxiety and irresolution : the question was, what 
course he should steer, and whether he should fly to Brutus or to Cassius, 
or to S. Pompeius ; but after all his deliberations, none of them pleased 
him so much as the expedient of dying : so that, as Plutarch says, he 
had some thoughts of returning to the city, and killing himself in Csesar's 
house, in order to leave the guilt and curse of his blood upon Csesar's 
perfidy and ingratitude. But the importunity of his servants prevailed 
with him to sail forwards to Cajeta, where he went again on shore to 
repose himself in his Formian villa, about a mile from the coast : weary 
of life and the sea, and declaring, that he would die in that country, 
which he had so often saved. Here he slept soundly for several hours ; 
though as some writers tell us, a great number of crows were fluttering 
all the while, and making a strange noise about his windows, as if to rouse 
and warn him of his approaching fate, and that one of them made its 
way into the chamber, and pulled away his very bed-clothes, till his 
slaves, admonished by this prodigy, and ashamed to see brute creatures 
more solicitous for his safety than themselves, forced him into his litter 
or portable chair, and carried him away towards the ship, through the 
private ways and walks of his woods; having just heard, that soldiers 
were already come into the country in quest of him, and not far from 
the villa. As soon as they were gone, the soldiers arrived at the house, 
and perceiving him to be fled, pursued immediately towards the sea, and 
overtook him in the wood. Their leader was one Popilius Lsenas, a tri- 
bune or colonel of the army, whom Cicero had formerly defended and 
preserved in a capital cause. As soon as the soldiers appeared, the 
servants prepared themselves to fight, being resolved to defend their 
master's life at the hazard of their own : but Cicero commanded them to 
set him down, and to make no resistance : then looking upon his execu- 
tioners with a presence and firmness which almost daunted them, and 
thrusting his neck as forwardly as he could out of the litter, he bade them 
do their work, and take what they wanted : upon which they presently 
cut off his head, and both his hands, and returned with them, in all haste 
and great joy, towards Rome, as the most agreeable present which they 
could possibly carry to Antony. Popilius charged himself with the con- 
veyance, without reflecting on the infamy of carrying that head which had 
saved his own : he found Antony in the Forum, surrounded with guards 
and crowds of people : but upon shewing from a distance the spoils which 
he brought, he was rewarded upon the spot with the honour of a crown 
and about eight thousand pounds sterling. Antony ordered the head to 
be fixed upon the rostra, between the two hands : a sad spectacle to the 
city, and what drew tears from every eye ; to see those mangled members, 
which used to exert themselves so gloriously from that place in defence 
of their lives, the fortunes, and the liberties of the Roman people, so 



I 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 57 

lamentably exposed to the scorn of sycophants and traitors. The deaths 
of the rest, says an historian of that age, caused only a private and par- 
ticular sorrow, but Cicero's an universal one : it was a triumph over the 
republic itself; and seemed to confirm and estabhsh the perpetual slavery 
of Rome. Antony considered it as such, and, satiated with Cicero's blood, 
declared the proscription at an end. He was killed on the seventh of 
December, about ten days from the settlement of the triumvkate ; after 
he had lived sixty- three years, eleven months, and five days." 

Eustace says that the assassination of Cicero has been described by 
several ancient writers, but has been painted only by Plutarch. He 
visited the ruins of the Formian villa, from which Cicero was hastening 
towards the sea when he was assassinated. These ruins are about a mile 
from the shore ; and nearer the sea stands a disfigured obelisk, which tra- 
dition reveres as Cicero's mausoleum, raised on the very spot where he 
was assassinated, and where his faithful attendants immediately interred 
his headless trunk. But there is no authentic historical account of Cicero's 
obsequies and sepulchre. The above version of Elphinstone is indifferent. 
Byron in a higher strain sings of the associations which are still attached 
to the 

Forum, where th' immortal accents glow. 
And still the eloquent air breathes — burns with Cicero ! 



XXXIV. 

ATTE^^>TED MURDER OF MARIUS. 

Cum post Teutonicos victor Libycosque triumphos 
Exul limosa Marius caput abdidit ulva, 
Stagna avidi texere soli, laxseque paludes 
Depositum, Fortuna, tuum : mox vincula ferri 
Exedere senem, longusque in carcere psedor. 
Consul, et eversa felix moriturus in urbe 
Pcenas ante dabat scelerum. Mors ipsa refugit 
Saepe virum, frustraque hosti est concessa potestas 
Sanguinis invisi, primo qui csedis in ictu 
Diriguit, ferrumque manu torpente remisit. 

Yet to Minturnse's marsh the victor fled, 
And hid in oozy flags his exil'd head. 
The faithless soil the hunted chief reliev'd, 
And sedgy waters fortune's pledge receiv'd. 



58 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Deep in a dungeon plung'd at length he lay, 
Where gyves and rankling fetters eat their way, 
And noisome vapours on his vitals prey. 
Ordain'd at ease to die in wretched Rome, 
He sufFer'd then, for wickedness to come. 
In vain his foes had arm'd the Cimbrian's hand. 
Death will not always wait upon command ; 
About to strike, the slave with horror shook. 
The useless steel his loosening gripe forsook. 

Marius was dragged out of the water covered with mud, and with a 
rope round his neck was delivered up to the authorities of Minturnse. A 
Cimbric soldier, who had engaged to put Marius to death, entered with 
a drawn sword in his hand the cell in which Marius was confined. The 
part of the cell in which Marius lay was in the shade, and to the fright- 
ened barbarian the eyes of Marius seemed to dart out fire, whilst from 
the darkness a terrible voice shouted out, " Man ! dost thou dare to mur- 
der Caius Marius ?" The barbarian immediately threw down his sword, 
and rushed out of the prison, exclaiming, " I cannot kill Caius Marius." 
It was after escaping from Minturnse, when Marius was again in peril of 
his life at Carthage, that he uttered another memorable saying : " Tell 
the Prsetor that you have seen Caius Marius sitting on the ruins of 
Carthage." 



XXXV. 

IPHIGENEIA'S SACRIFICE. 

(A) 
Aulide quo pacto Triviai virginis aram 
Iphianassai turparunt sanguine fede 
Ductores Danaum delectei, prima virorum, 
Cui simul infula, virgineos circumdata comtus, 
Ex utraque pari malarum parte profusa est ; 
Et msestum simul ante aras astare parentem 
Sensit, et hunc propter ferrum celare ministros, 
Aspectuque suo lacrumas effundere civeis ; 
Muta metu, terram, genibus summissa, petebat : 
Nee miserae prodesse in tali tempore quibat, 
Quod patrio princeps donarat nomine regem 
Nam sublata virum manibus, tremebundaque, ad aras 
Deducta est ; non ut, solenni more sacrorum 



I.] REMAEKABLE ACTIONS AKD OCCURRENCES. 

Perfecto, posset claro comitari hymenaeo ; 
Sed, casta inceste, nubendi tempore in ipso, 
Hostia eoncideret maetatu maesta parentis, 
Exitus ut elassi felix faustusque daretur. 
Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum ! 

By that Diana's cruel altar fiow'd 
With innocent and royal virgin's blood : 
Unhappy maid ! with sacred ribands bound, 
Religion's pride ! and holy garlands crown'd ; 
To meet an undeserved, untimely fate. 
Led by the Grecian chiefs in pomp and state : 
She saw her father by, whose tears did flow 
In streams ; the only pity he could show. 
She saw the crafty priest conceal the knife 
From him, bless'd and prepar'd against her life ! 
She saw her citizens with weeping eyes 
Unwillingly attend the sacrifice. 
Then, dumb with grief, her tears did pity crave ; 
But 'twas beyond her father's power to save. 
In vain did inn'cence, youth, and beauty plead ; 
In vain the first pledge of his nuptial bed : 
She fell ; ev'n now grown ripe for bridal joy, 
To bribe the gods, and buy a wind for Troy. 
So died this innocent, this royal maid : 
Such fiendish acts religion could persuade ! 

(B) 

Stetit 
Devota, feralique vitta 

Cincta comam, — tacitis parentem 

Lustrans ocellis, visa tamen loqui : 
Haesitque prensans brachia parvulus 
Patremque non certis Orestes 
Vocibus, eloquioque balbo 

Patrem vocavit : sed Genitor pedem 
Tulisse retro dicitur, et caput 
Velasse, coUectaque veste 
Implicitos tenuisse vultus ; 



60 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Oh. 

Lapsam sub aras scilicet haud potens 
Nexamque flexo poplite virginem 
Spectare, et efFusum cruorem 
Crinibiis, immeritoque coUo. 

See how her near relations all lament 
To lose a virgin fair and innocent. 
The undermourners are so full of grief, 
The painter's puzzled to express the chief: 
He finds the pencil is for this too frail, 
And therefore o'er his eyes he casts a veil. 
Thus wisely covering Agamemnon's face, 
He turns the art's defect into a grace. 

It is to be feared that Creech (immortalized for his want oi flowers of 
speech) does not give an adequate notion of the beauties of Lucretius. 
The second piece is from a Prize Poem of Dr Wordsworth. The English 
verses annexed are to be found in Evelyn's Epigrams on Painting. They 
have been selected, as well as Dr Wordsworth's composition, with refer- 
ence to the celebrated veiling of Agamemnon's face in Timanthe's picture, 
celebrated by Cicero, Quintilian, Valerius Maximus, and Pliny the Elder. 

The veiling of Agamemnon's face is disapproved of by Sir Joshua 
Reynolds in his Eighth Discourse, but is vindicated with great ability by 
FuseH, in his Lecture on Ancient Art. The Sacrifice of Iphigeneia is 
treated of by -^Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Ennius, and Racine. The 
circumstances under which Racine represents Agamemnon to have co- 
vered his face, at a moment when two parties are on the point of 
engaging .in conflict, have not been considered so natural as those under 
which the same circumstance is introduced by Euripides : 

Le triste Agamemnon qui n'ose I'avouer, 

Pour detourner ses yeux des meurtres qu'il presage, 

Ou pour cacher ses pleurs, s'est voile le visage. 

Dr Wordsworth does not express all that was considered to be repre- 
sented in Timanthe's picture, viz. the gradations of affection, from the 
most remote to the closest link of humanity. It is related, that when 
Lully was reproached with setting to music only the tame verses of 
Quinault, he ran to his harpsichord, and, with an extemporary musical 
accompaniment of unrivalled power, repeated the following lines from 
Racine's Iphigeneia: 

Un Pretre environne d'une foule cruelle 
Portera sur ma fiUe une maine criminelle. 
Dechirera son sein, et d'un ceil curieux 
Dans son coeur palpitant consultera les Dieux. 



I.] REMAEKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 6i 



XXXVI. 

MARSEILLES' BISHOP. HIS CONDUCT DURING THE 
PLAGUE. 

Vitae qui Prsesul et auri 
Prodigus, assiduis animos et corpora curis 
Sustinuit, mortem visus ealcare metumque, 
Intrepido vadens per strata cadavera passu. 

Profuse of life, and prodigal of gold, 

The sacred pastor tends his sick'ning fold ; 

Repose of body and of mind disdains, 

To calm their woes and mitigate their pains : 

Bravely despises death and every fear, 

With holy rites their drooping hearts to cheer ; 

Vast heaps of dead without dismay he views, 

And with firm step his generous way pursues. 

The name of this bishop of Marseilles, thus commemorated by Van- 
niere, was M. de Belsunce. The plague of Marseilles occurred in the 
year 1720. When the plague ceased he was offered by the Regent of 
France the richer and more honourable see of St Laon, in Picardy; but 
he refused it, saying, that he should be unwilling to leave a flock that 
had been endeared to him by their sufferings. There is a picture in the 
town-hall of Marseilles, in which the bishop is represented in his episcopal 
habit, attended by his almoners, giving his benediction to the dying and 
the dead that are at his feet. But his memory is, perhaps, more lastingly 
perpetuated in the lines of Pope : 

Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath. 
When nature sickened, and each gale was death ? 

The following is a description of the plague of Marseilles, contained 
in one of the good bishop's own letters to the bishop of Soissons. 

"Never was desolation greater, nor was ever anything like this. There 
have been many cruel plagues, but none was ever more cruel : to be sick 
and dead was almost the same thing. What a melancholy spectacle have 
we on all sides ! we go into the streets full of dead bodies, half rotten 
through, which we pass to come to a dying body, to excite him to an act 
of contrition, and give him absolution. For about forty days together 
the blessed sacrament was carried everywhere to all the sick, and the 
extreme unction was given them with a zeal of which we have but few 
examples. But the churches being infected with the stench of the dead 



62 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

flung at the doors, we were obliged to leave off, and be content with con- 
fessing the poor people. At present I have no more confessors. The two 
communities of the Jesuits are quite disabled, to the reserve of one old 
man of seventy-two years, who still goes about night and day, and visits 
the hospitals. My secretary and another lie sick ; so that they have obliged 
me to quit my palace, and retire to the first President, who was so kind 
as to lend me his house. We are desolate of all succour; we have no 
meat ; and whatsoever I could do going all about the town, I could not 
meet with any that would undertake to distribute broth to the poor that 
were in want. There is a great diminution," he adds, " of the mortality ; 
and those that hold that the moon contributes to all this, are of opinion 
that we owe this diminution to the decline of the moon. For my part, I 
am convinced that we owe all this to the mercies of God, from whom 
alone we must hope for relief in the deplorable condition we have been 
in so long a while." 

It is a gratifying circumstance that England can boast of a rival of 
Marseilles' good bishop in the Rev. William Mompesson, rector of Eyam 
in Derbyshire. Four-fifths of the inhabitants of this once populous vil- 
lage were destroyed in one summer by the plague. The church was 
deserted, and a pulpit chosen in an adjacent rock. This pulpit of nature, 
and the temporary burial-place of the plague-stricken inhabitants, are still 
visited among the curiosities of the Peak. Mr Mompesson's pious, cha- 
ritable, and intrepid conduct during the plague, and his severer trials than 
those of the bishop of Marseilles arising from the circumstance of having 
a wife and children, are detailed in Hone's Every-Day Booh, Vol. in., and 
the Gentleman's Magazine of Sept. 1801, and in a poem called The Deso- 
lation of Eyam. 



XXXVII. 

HADRIAN'S PARTING ADDRESS TO HIS SOUL, WHEN DYING. 

Animula ! vagula blandula, 
Hospes, comesque corporis, 
Qnae nunc abibis in loca ? 
Pallidula, rigida, nudula, 
Nee ut soles, dabis jocos. 

Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing, 

Must we no longer live together ? 

And dost thou prune thy trembling wing, 

To take thy flight, thou know'st not whither ? 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 63 

Thy humorous vein, thy pleasing folly, 

Lies all neglected, all forgot : 

And pensive, wavering, melancholy, 

Thou dread'st and hop'st thou know'st not what. 

Ma petite ame, ma mignonne, 

Tu t'en va done, ma fille, et Dieu sache ou tu vas : 

Tu pars seulette, nue, et tremblotante, helas ! 

Que deviendra ton humeur folichonne ! 

Que deviendront tant de jolis ebats ? 

« 
The translations are from Prior, and Fontenelle. Lord Byron also 
translated the lines, and there is a prose as well as a poetical translation 
of them by Pope in one of his letters to Steele. Hadrian's verses are 
closely connected with Pope's dying Christian, and as such they are 
adverted to in four of Pope's letters, and in No. 532 of the Spectator. 
Pope's Ode was written at the desire of Steele, who wanted a version of 
Hadrian's lines for music ; and in a letter to him on that occasion, Pope 
writes, " You have it, as Cowley calls it, just warm from the brain ; it 
came to me the first moment I waked this morning ; yet you'U see it was 
not so absolutely inspiration, but that I had in my head not only the verses 
of Hadrian, but the fine fragment of Sappho." Warton notices a stanza 
from which Pope probably, though, perhaps, without being conscious of 
it, borrowed. It is in the works of Flatman, an obscure writer in the 
time of Charles 11., who appears to have had an eye on Hadrian : 

When on my sick bed I languish 

Full of sorrow, full of anguish, 

Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying, 

Panting, groaning, speechless, dying; 

Methinks I hear some gentle spirit say, 

Be not fearful, come away ! 

Pope was of opinion that the diminutive epithets with which Ha- 
drian's address abounds were by no means expressions of levity and indif' 
ference, but rather of endearment, of tenderness and concern. 



64 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXXVIII. 

METAMORPHOSIS OF MATSYS. 
Connubialis amor de Mulcibre fecit Apellem. 
Matrimony made an Apelles out of a Vulcan, 

Evelyn, in his Epigrams on Painting, has the following verses upon 
Matsys : 

Since noise his mistress did offend, 
To th' hammer-trade he puts an end. 
And now does set himself to paint ; 
An art more quiet and more quaint. 
And doth by dint of love attain 't. 
Venus has washed his Vulcan face, 
And a clean pencil is his grace. 

The Latin verse is the epitaph inscribed on the monument, in the 
cathedral of Antwerp, of Matsys, the Flemish artist whose picture of 
the Two Misers continues to draw admiration from visitors of Windsor 
Castle. 

Matsys followed the trade of a blacksmith till the age of twenty, 
when he became enamoured of the daughter of a painter, who would not 
consent to his daughter being married to any one but a painter. Matsys 
obtained the hand of the fair one by exchanging his hammer for the 
painter's brush, and became a principal ornament of the Flemish school. 



XXXIX. 

ST DUNSTAN. 

Sic, ut Eoma refert, Sanctus Dunstanius olim 
Candenti magnum prensavit forcipe nasum 
Luciferi. Hie vasto prorumpit ab ore tenebras 
Turbidus, inque atra livescunt sulphura nube. 
Ter mugit, ter dira rudit, vocemque profundam 
Cum gemitu attoUit ; ter frustra squallida regna 
Kespondent Domino, planctumque retorquet Avernus 
Stridet olens, fumatque ingens semiusta Proboscis. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 65 

Waked with this music from my silent urn, 

Your patron Dunstan comes t' attend your turn. 

Amphion and old Orpheus playing by. 

To keep our forge in tuneful harmony. 

These pontifical ornaments I wear, 

Are types of rule and order all the year. 

In these white robes none can a fault descry, 

Since all have liberty as well as I : 

Nor need you fear the shipwreck of your cause, 

Your loss of charter, or the penal laws, 

Indulgence granted by your bounteous prince 

Makes for that loss too great a recompence. 

This charm the Lernean Hydra will reclaim ; 

Your patron shall the tameless rabble tame. 

Of the proud Cham I scorn to be afear'd ; 

I'll take the angry Sultan by the beard. 

Nay, should the Devil intrude amongst your foes — 
Devil What then? 
St D. Snap, thus, I have him by the nose ! 

The Latin is taken from a poem on a bull-bait in the Musoe Angli- 
canoe. The English is from a Lord's Mayor's pageant, a. d. 1687. The 
Lord Mayor, Sir John Shorter, belonged to the Goldsmith's Company. 
St Dunstan was regarded as the tutelar saint of the company ; the legend 
being supposed to have originated in the circumstance that St Dunstan 
was expert in goldsmith's work. Amphion, the grand Sultan, the Cham 
of Tartary, and the Devil, were figures in the pageant. At the steps of 
the prelatical throne were a goldsmith's forge and furnace. (For further 
particulars of the pageant, see Hone's Every-Day Booh, Vol. i. p. 674.) 
The allusions to the forfeiture of the city's charter, penal laws, and royal 
declaration of indulgence, are interesting from the deep political im- 
portance of these measures which are thus glanced at in this contem- 
porary and popular civic exhibition. Southey, in his Booh of the Churchy 
dilates upon the miracles of St Dunstan. He mentions St Dunstan 
having a forge at Glastont^ury, at which he was accustomed to work in 
gold and silver. 



^6 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 



XL. 

SIR THOMAS MORE'S RELATION OF A MONK THROWN 
OVERBOARD TO LIGHTEN A SHIP OF A CREW'S SINS. 

Cum tumida horrisonis insurgeret unda procellis, 

Et maris in lassam ferveret ira ratem, 
Eeligio timidis illabitur anxia nautis, 

Heu parat, exclamant, hoe mala vita malum. 
Vectores inter Monaehus fuit, hujus in aurem 

Se properant vitiis exonerare suis. 
Ast ubi senserunt nihilo sibi mitius sequor, 

Sed rapido puppim vix superesse freto : 
Quid miri est, ait unus, aqua si vix ratis exstat, 

Nostrorum scelerum pondere adhuc premitur. 
Quin Monachum hunc, in quern culpas exhausimus omnes 

Ejicite, et secum hinc erimina nostra ferat. 
Dicta probant, rapiuntque virum, simul in mare torquent, 

Et lintrem levius quam prius esse, ferunt. 
Hinc, hinc quam gravis est peccati sarcina, disce, 

Cujus non potuit pondera ferre ratis. 

A ship being in extreme peril from a storm, the sailors 
imputed their calamity to the weight of their sins. Accord- 
ingly they all made confession to a Monk. But the storm 
did not in the least abate, and the sailors thought their 
destruction inevitable, until one of the crew suggested that 
they should throw the Monk overboard ; which was accord- 
ingly done forthwith. The storm shortly afterwards abating, 
the sailors believed that the ship had been lightened by 
the accumulated weight of their sins being cast into the 
sea at once in the person of the Monk. 

The piece is curious as it displays Sir Thomas More's jocular vein ; 
and shews that, although his head was stuck over London Bridge on 
account of his attachment to the catholic faith, he had enjoyed merriment 
at the expence of the Monks, and written with jocularity on the subject 
of the Sacrament of Confession. 



I.] REMARKABLE ACTIONS AND OCCURRENCES. 67 

XLI. 

THE MIRACLE AT CANA. 

Unde rubor vestris, et non sua purpura lymphis? 

Quae rosa mirantes tarn nova mutat aquas ? 
Numen, Convivas, prsesens agnoscite Numen : 

Nympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuit. 

When Christ, at Cana's feast, by pow'r divine 
Inspir'd cold water with the warmth of wine. 
See ! cried they, while in redd'ning tide it gush'd, 
The bashful stream hath seen its God and blush'd. 

The Latin is by Crawshaw, the English by Hill. Though the point 
of this epigram may be classed among conceits, it is a very ingenious and 
not an uninteresting specimen of the genus. The concluding line of the 
version has all the force of the original, and is the better for discarding 
the nymph. Sidney Smith, in his lectures, censures the epigram for the 
wit extinguishing its sublimity. 

The following lines on the picture of the Marriage of Cana by Paul 
Veronese, are in Evelyn's collection of poetical descriptions of pictures : 

See an aspiring wit surmounting schools. 

Above dull precepts and incumb'ring rules. 

At this magnificent and famous feast 

Every spectator is a kind of guest. 

A great variety he soon descries 

That entertains his thoughts, and feeds his eyes. 

Most choice carnations, drapery well cast, 

Truth, life, and motion, not to be surpast. 

When we behold this noble piece we view 

Paul's triumph and the pride of Painting too. 
In an excellent sermon which the author heard at Cambridge when 
the above was in the press, the preacher adverted to the applicability of 
the miracle at Cana to some peculiarities of the present times. 1. As it 
discountenanced the institution of monks and nuns, and the notions of 
those fanatics, who, from religious scruples, shun all festive entertain- 
ments. 2. As it was irreconcileable with the opinions of another set of 
silly ones, who call themselves by the drivelling name of Tea-totallers. 
3. In more immediate reference to the conyersation between Jesus and 
his mother, preliminary to the performance of the miracle, as it exposed 
the absurdity and impiety of the Roman Catholic Breviary, and of the 
bulls of the last and present Pope, wherein the Virgin Mary is spoken 
of as a gate of heaven, a foundation of hope, an advocate, an intercessor, 
and an inspirer. 

5 — 2 



CHAPTER II. 
BIOGRAPHY. 



LINACRE. 

DuM Linacrus adit Mormos, patriosque Britannos 

Artibus egregiis dives ab Italia, 
Ingentem molem saxorum in rupibus altis 

Congerit ad fauces, alte Gebenna, tuas, 
Ploribus hinc viridique struem dum fronde coronat, 

Et sacer Assyrias pascitur ignis opes, 
Hoc tibi, ait. Mater studiorum O sancta meorum, 

Templum Linacrus dedicat, Italia ! 
Tu modo cui docta assurgant cum Pallade Athense. 

Hoc de me pretium sedulitatis habe. 

When Linacre was on his return to his countrymen in 
Britain with a mind enriched by the arts of Italy, he 
erected a high column of stones on a mountain near the 
gorge of the Mont de Cevennes. After strewing the erec- 
tion with green leaves and flowers, and burning frankincense 
upon it, he thus spoke. Italy ! this edifice is dedicated to 
thee, O sacred Mother of my studies ! O thou who may'st 
pride thyself on an Athens rising anew under the auspices 
of Minerva, deign to accept this humble memorial of my 
deep obligation for your fostering solicitude. 

The verses are by James Vitalis : they may be thought a very curious 
notice of Linacre, which is not commonly known. He was physician 
to Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI. and Mary, and was the founder 
of the College of Physicians. He afterwards became a dignitary of the 
Church. He undoubtedly, and the English nation through him, incurred 
a debt of obligation to Italy, as well for a first acquaintance with the 
ancient writers upon physic, as for imparting a taste for classical authors. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 69 

Linacre was one of the first promoters of Latin and Greek literature in 
England. He was in Italy at the period when refugees from Constanti- 
nople had begun to kindle an enthusiasm among the revivers of learning 
for the great writers of ancient Greece, a circumstance which is adverted 
to in the text. He graduated at Padua, and, during his residence in 
Italy, enjoyed the friendship of Lorenzo de Medici, Politian, and the 
Greek exile Demetrius. 



11. 

DR PITCAIRN. 

Invitation to a Ghost. 

Lyndesi ! Stygias jamdudum vecte per undas, 

Stagnaque Cocyti non adeunda mihi ; 
Excute paulisper Lethsei vincula somni, 

Ut pereant animum carmina nostra tuum. 
Te nobis, te redde tuis, promissa daturus 

Gaudia ; sed proavo sis comitante redux ; 
Namque novos homines mutataque regna videbis, 

Passaque Teutonicas sceptra Britanna manus 
Unus abest scelerum vindex Rhadamantus, amice, 

Di faciant reditus sit comes ille tui. 

Lindesay ! who now for some years past hast traversed 
the river Styx, and hast preceded me in forming acquaint- 
ance with the pools of Cocytus : — shake off for a while the 
chains of Lethean slumber, that my verses may penetrate 
and pervade your mind. — Return, I implore you ; diffuse 
those joys which you once promised to bestow after death. 
But bring with you your ancestor so illustrious for loyalty 
to the house of Stuart. — Eor when you come to earth you 
will behold a new people, a new dynasty, the sceptre of 
British kings wielded by a Dutchman. — Our nation has one 
great desire, it is the presence of Rhadamanthus, the 
punishing judge below, who alone can inflict ample ven- 
geance on triumphant villany. — When you come to us, I 
hope his infernal Majesty will permit Rhadamanthus to be 
of your party. 



70 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Dr Pitcairn, the celebrated physician, when young, engaged with his 
friend Lindesay (a descendant of Sir David Lindesay, the attached friend 
of James V.) that whoever died first should pay a visit to his surviving 
companion. It is related that soon after this compact Dr Pitcairn, at 
his father's house in Fife, dreamed that Lindesay came to him, and told 
him that he was not dead, as was commonly reported, but lived in a 
very agreeable place, to which he could not yet carry him. In the course 
of the next day, news came of Lindesay's death. Dr Pitcairn sometimes 
related this extraordinary circumstance, and always with great emotion. 
In most of his works published after the Revolution of 1688, he adverts 
with great bitterness to that event, and in consequence of it, he left 
Edinburgh, and accepted a Professor's chair at Leyden. 

The following ancient ghost- stories are from Pliny : — 

" The present recess from business we are now enjoying affords you 
leisure to give, and me to receive instruction. I am extremely desirous 
therefore to know your sentiments concerning spectres, whether you be- 
lieve they have a real form, and are a sort of divinities, or only the false 
impressions of a terrified imagination ? What particularly inclines me 
to give credit to their existence, is a story which I heard of Curtius Rufus. 
When he was in low circumstances and unknown in the world, he at- 
tended the governor of Africa into that province. One evening as he 
was walking in the public portico, he was extremely surprised with the 
figm^e of a woman which appeared to him, of a size and beauty more 
than human. She told him she was the tutelar power that presided over 
Africa, and was come to inform him of the future events of his life : 
that he should go back to Rome, where he should be raised to the 
highest honours, and return to that province invested with the procon- 
sular dignity, and there should die. Accordingly every circumstance of 
this prophecy was actually accomplished. It is said farther, that upon 
his arrival at Carthage, as he was coming out of the ship, the same figure 
accosted him upon the shore. It is certain, at least, that being seized 
with a fit of illness, though there were no symptoms in his case that led 
his attendants to despair, he instantly gave up all hope of recovery ; 
judging, it should seem, of the truth of the future part of the prediction, 
by that which had already been fulfilled, and of the misfortune which 
threatened him, by the success which he had experienced. To this story 
let me add another as remarkable as the former, but attended with cir- 
cumstances of great horror ; which I will give you exactly as it was 
related to me. There was at Athens a large and spacious house, which 
lay under the disrepute of being haunted. In the dead of the night a 
noise, resembling the clashing of iron, was frequently heard, which, if you 
listened more attentively, sounded like the rattling of chains ; at first it 
seemed at a distance, but approached nearer by degrees ; immediately 
afterward a spectre appeared in the form of an old man, extremely 
meagre and ghastly, with a long beard and dishevelled hair, rattling the 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 71 

chains on his feet and hands. The poor inhabitants in the meanwhile 
passed their nights under the most dreadful terrors imaginable. This, 
as it broke their rest, ruined their health, and threw them into distempers, 
which, together with their horrors of mind, proved in the end fatal to 
their lives. Even in the day-time, though the spirit did not appear, yet 
the remembrance of it made such a strong impression upon their imagina- 
tions, that it still seemed before their eyes, and continually alarmed 
them, though it was no longer present. By this means the house was at 
last deserted, as being judged by every body to be absolutely uninha- 
bitable ; so that it was now entirely abandoned to the ghost. However, 
in hopes that some tenant might be found who was ignorant of this great 
calamity which attended it, a bill was put up, giving notice that it was 
either to be let or sold. It happened that Athenodorus the philosopher 
came to Athens at this time, and reading the bill, enquired the price. 
The extraordinary cheapness raised his suspicion ; nevertheless, when he 
heard the whole story, he was so far from being discouraged, that he was 
more strongly inclined to hire it, and, in short, actually did so. When it 
grew towards evening, he ordered a couch to be prepared for him in the 
fore-part of the house, and after calling for a light, together with his pen 
and tablets, he directed all his people to retire. But that his mind might 
not, for want of employment, be open to the vain terrors of imaginary 
noises and spirits, he applied himself to writing with the utmost attention. 
The first part of the night passed with usual silence, when at length the 
chains began to rattle : however, he neither lifted up his eyes, nor laid 
down his pen, but diverted his observation by pursuing his studies with 
greater earnestness. The noise increased and advanced nearer, till it 
seemed at the door, and at last in the chamber. He looked up and saw 
the ghost exactly in the manner it had been described to him : it stood 
before him, beckoning with the finger. Athenodorus made a sign with 
his hand that it should wait a little, and threw his eyes again upon his 
papers ; but the ghost still rattling his chains in his ears, he looked up 
and saw him beckoning as before. Upon this he immediately arose, and 
with the fight in his hand, followed it. The ghost slowly stalked along, 
as if encumbered with his chains, and turning into the area of the house, 
suddenly vanished. Athenodorus being thus deserted, made a mark with 
some grass and leaves where the spirit left him. The next day he gave 
information of this to the magistrates, and advised them to order that 
spot to be dug up. This was accordingly done, and the skeleton of a 
man in chains was there found ; for the body having lain a considerable 
time in the ground, was putrefied and mouldered away from the fetters. 
The bones being collected together were publicly buried, and thus after 
the ghost was appeased by the proper ceremonies, the house was haunted 
no more. This story I befieve upon the credit of others ; what I am 
going to mention I give you upon my own. I have a freed-man named 
Marcus, who is by no means illiterate. One night as he and his younger 
brother were lying together, he fancied he saw somebody upon his bed, 



72 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

who took out a pair of scissors, and cut off the hair from the top part of 
his head, and in the morning, it appeared the boy's hair was actually cut, 
and the clippings lay scattered about the floor. A short time after this, 
an event of the like nature contributed to give credit to the former story. 
A young lad of my family was sleeping in his apartment with the rest of 
his companions, when two persons clad in white came in (as he tells the 
story) through the windows, and cut off his hair as he lay, and as soon as 
they had finished the operation, retm-ned the same way they entered. 
The next morning it was found that this boy had been served just as the 
other, and with the very same circumstance of the hair spread about the 
room. Nothing remarkable indeed followed these events, unless that I 
escaped a prosecution, in which, if Domitian (during whose reign this 
happened) had lived some time longer, I should certainly have been in- 
volved. For after the death of that emperor, articles of impeachment 
against me were found in his scrutoire, which had been exhibited by 
Carus. It may therefore be conjectured, since it is customary for persons 
under any public accusation to let their hair grow, this cutting off the hair 
of my servants was a sign I should escape the imminent danger that 
threatened me Let me desire you then maturely to consider this ques- 
tion. The subject merits your examination ; as, I trust, I am not myself 
altogether unworthy to participate of the abundance of your superior 
knowledge. And though you should, with your usual scepticism, balance 
between two opinions, yet I hope you will throw the weightier reasons on 
one side, lest, whilst I consult you in order to have my doubts settled, 
you should dismiss me in the same suspense and uncertainty that occa- 
sioned this application. Farewell." 



III. 

DANTE. 

Hie claudor Dantes, patriis extorris ab oris. 
Quern genuit parvi Florentia mater Amoris. 

Here Dante, whom the lovely Florence bore, 
Lies buried, exil'd from his native shore. 

The poet was buried at Ravenna. The Florentines often endeavoured 
to recover his remains, especially during the pontificate of Leo X. 
Michael Angelo offered to execute a monument for Dante, to be erected 
at Florence; but the people of Ravenna always refused to part with a 
memorial of the asylum which they had afforded to Dante when living. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 73 

The absence of the remains of Dante from the church of Santa Croce is 

thus beautifully noticed by Lord Byron : 

Ungrateful Florence ! Dante sleeps afar. 
Like Scipio, buried by th' upbraiding shore ; 
Thy factions in their worse than civil war 
Proscrib'd the bard whose name for evermore 
Their children's children would in vain adore 
With the remorse of ages. 

And Santa Croce wants their mighty dust ; 
Yet for this want more noted, as of yore 
The Caesar's pageant, shorn of Brutus' bust. 
Did but of Rome's best son remind her more ; 
Happier Ravenna ! on thy hoary shore. 
Fortress of falling empire ! honour'd sleeps 
Th' immortal exile. 

Michael Angelo, in a sonnet to Dante, says, that Heaven expanded its 
lofty gates to the Bard to whom his native land refused to open hers. 



IV. 

MICHAEL ANGELO. 

Inscriptions on his Monument. 

Michael Angelus Bonarotus, Nobilis Florentinus, An. 
Mi. suae lxxi. 

Qui sim, nomen habes. Satque est ; nam csetera cui non 
Sunt nota, aut mentem non habet, aut oculos. 

Reverse. 
Quantum in natura ars, naturaque possit in arte, 
Hie, qui natursB par fuit, arte docet. 

To Michael Angelo Bonaroto, — a noble Florentine, in 
the seventy-first year of his age. 

You are here told who I am, by name. It is enough — 
not to know the rest is to want understanding, or to be 
blind. 

Reverse. 

To what extent Art may avail Nature, and Nature 
may avail Art, this Man, who rivalled nature by his art, 
instructs us. 



74 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

When in very advanced age Michael Angelo one day met Cardinal 
Farnese among the ruins of the Coliseum, and told him that he should 
not be surprised at an old man continuing to survey with earnestness the 
remains of ancient art : for " I yet go to school, that I may continue to 
learn something." And, in order to inculcate on young artists the neces- 
sity of unabating attention to improvement, he invented a design of an 
old man grouped with an hour-glass, and a child's go-cart, under which 
he inscribed a motto, " I still go on learning." This was shortly before 
M. Angelo's death, which occurred a.d. 1562, when, as appears by the 
inscription in the text, he had exceeded the Psalmist's limit of threescore 
and ten. Sir Joshua Reynolds concludes his lectures by saying that the 
last words he wished to utter in the Royal Academy were Michael Angelo. 



V. 

RAPHAEL. 



lUe hie est Raphael. Timuit, quo sospite, vinci 
Rerum Magna Parens, et moriente, mori. 

Living, Great Nature fear'd he might outvie 
Her works, and, dying, fears herself may die. 

Bembo's epitaph on Raphael, so closely copied by Pope, in his epi- 
taph on Sir Godfrey Kneller, but without equal felicity with the Latin 
of including the painter's name, was written by Cardinal Bembo, at the 
request of Leo X. This Coryphaeus of painters died at the early age of 
37, and was interred with great funeral ceremony in the Pantheon. 
Warton has suggested a variation of the epitaph : 

Here Raphael lies, by whose untimely end 

Nature hath lost a Rival and a Friend. 

It is mentioned in Spence's Anecdotes that Pope said to him : " I paid 
Sir Godfrey Kneller a visit but two days before he died, and I think I 
never saw a scene of so much vanity in my life. He was lying in his 
bed, and contemplating the plan he had made for his own monument. 
He said many gross things in relation to himself, and the memory he 
should leave behind him. He said he should not like to lie among the 
rascals at Westminster. A memorial there would be sufficient, and desired 
me to write an epitaph for it. I did so afterwards ; and I think it is the 
worst thing I ever wrote in my life." It would appear that Sir Godfrey 
might not himself have deemed Pope's epitaph hyperbolical, if we may 
credit the following anecdote. 

" A night or two ago (said Sir Godfrey) I had a very odd sort of dream. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 75 

I dreamt that I was dead, and soon after found myself walking in a nar- 
row path that led up between two hills, rising pretty equally on each side 
of it. Before me I saw a door, and a great number of people about it. 
I walked on toward them. — As I drew nearer, I could distinguish St Peter 
by his keys, with some other of the Apostles ; they were admitting the 
people as they came next the door. When I had joined the company, I 
could see several seats, every way, at a little distance within the door. 
As the first, after my coming up, approached for admittance, St Peter 
asked his name, and then his religion. — I am a Roman Catholic, replied 
the spirit. Go in then, says St Peter, and sit down on those seats there 
on the right hand. The next was a Presbyterian : he was admitted too 
after the usual questions, and ordered to sit down on the seats opposite to 
the other. My turn came next, and as I approached, St Peter very civilly 
asked me my name. I said it was Kneller. I had no sooner said so, 
than St Luke (who was standing just by) turned toward me, and said, 
with a great deal of sweetness — ' What ! the famous Sir Godfrey Knel- 
ler, from England?' — 'The very same, sir, (says I) at your service.' — On 
this St Luke immediately drew near to me, embraced me, and made me a 
great many compliments on the art we had both followed in this world. 
He entered so far into the subject, that he seemed almost to have forgot 
the business for which I came thither. At last, however, he recollected 
himself, and said ; ' I beg your pardon. Sir Godfrey ; I was so taken up 
with the pleasure of conversing with you ! — But, apropos, pray. Sir, what 
rehgion may you be of?' — 'Why truly, Sir, (says I) I am of no religion.' — 
' O, Sir, (says he) you will be so good then as to go in and take your seat 
where you please.' " 



VI. 

ANNIBAL CARACCI. 



Quod poteras hominum vivos effingere vultus 
Annibal, heu cito mors invida te rapuit. 

Finxisses utinam te, mors decepta sepulchro 
Crederet effigiem, vivus et ipse fores. 

Death envied, Annibal ! thy wondrous art. 

Life to each human visage to impart. 

Hadst thou thyself thy likeness but pourtray'd, 

The Fates themselves a kind mistake had made, 

Had merely placed thy semblance in the grave. 

And poVrs like thine, for once, been known to save ! 



76 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

It is said of Annibal Caracci, that when the conversation in which he 
was engaged referred to any thing that could be made an object of the 
pencil, he used to take a pencil to draw it, saying, that as poets paint by 
words, so painters should speak by their pencils. His chief performance 
was the frescoes in the Famesian Gallery. When Pope Paul III., at the 
instigation of his jealous favourite Gioseppino, gave him no more than 
two thousand crowns for his work, he drew an ass of a monstrous size, 
magnificently accoutred, and decorated with the pontiff's arms: the 
driver of this beast was proportionably large and tall, and represented to 
the life the envious Gioseppino. One of his most distinguished pictures 
is the Sleep of Jesus. The infant St John extends his hand to caress 
Jesus, and is on the point of wakening him, when the Virgin admonishes 
him by a sign not to disturb the repose of her child. When Annibal 
Caracci found his last hour approaching, he desired to be interred by 
the side of Raphael. 



VIL 
POUSSIN. 

Parce piis lacrymis, vivit Pussinus in urna, 
Vivere qui dederat, nescius ipse mori. 

Hie tamen ipse silet ; si vis audire loquentem, 
Mirum est ; in tabulis vivit et eloquitur. 

Weep not for Poussin : he lives in the grave ! 
How can he die, who life to others gave ? 
Yet there he 's silent, would you hear him speak ? 
His voice in his impressive pictures seek. 

Nicholas Poussin's great work was the seven pictures now in the 
Louvre, representing the Seven Sacraments of the Cathohc Church. The 
picture of Marriage is considered the most inferior of the set ; which 
gave occasion to a bon-mot : " Qu'un bon mariage est diflS-cile a faire 
meme en peinture." He painted the Crucifixion, with several circum- 
stances of horror which have not been noticed by any of the most 
eminent painters. Some glimpses of the moon are visible from under a 
black and lurid sky; and figures of the dead rise out of the ground, 
which are seen by one of the soldiers, who, in an attitude of extreme 
terror, draws his sword. Poussin's model was Domenichino. 



II. ] BIOGRAPHY. 77 

VIII. 
FRASCATORO. 

Os Frascatorio nascenti defuit, ergo 

Sedulus attenta finxit Apollo manu. 
Inde hauri, Medicusque ingens, ingensque Poeta 

Et magno facies omnia plena Deo. 

Thine infant lips, Frascator, nature seal'd, 
But the mute organ favouring Phoebus heal'd : 
He broke the charm ; and hence to thee belong 
The art of healing, and the power of song. 

Frascatoro belonged to the first class of Italian scholars. He was 
distinguished for his skill in medicine, as well as for Latin poetry. At 
the time of his birth his lips adhered together in such a manner as scarcely 
allowed him to breathe; but the defect was remedied by a surgical 
operation. Scaliger, in his critique on modern Latin poets, places Fras- 
catorius at the head of the band. The Latin is by Scaliger, the English 
by Roscoe. Frascatoro's merits are considered in Mr Hallam's History of 
Modern Literature, and by Jortin. Dr Hodgson gives a pretty translation 
from Frascatoro's extraordinary chef-d'oeuvre. 



IX. 

THE ANTIQUARY VAILLANT. 

Cernitis ? hie Vir hie est spoliis Orientis onustus, 
Romanas et opes Argolicasque vehens — 

Tot collecta mori cur non monumenta vetabunt, 
Tot collecta vetat qui monumenta mori ? 

Do you observe ? Here is a Man laden with the spoils 
of the East, besides the treasures of Greece and of Rome. 
— Surely so many collected antiquities will preserve from 
oblivion one who preserved from oblivion so many col- 
lected antiquities. 

Vaillant was educated for the profession of Physic : but was induced 
to make Antiquities the study of his life, from the circumstance of a col- 
lection of old coins being accidentally found buried in a field belonging 



78 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

to his father. His peculiar turn was that of illustrating ancient history 
by coins and medals : in pursuit of these he visited Egypt, Greece, Persia, 
and other foreign countries. In the course of his peregrinations he was 
on one occasion captured by a corsair, and made a slave. After his re- 
demption from captivity, he narrowly escaped a second corsair. On this 
occasion he swallowed fifteen medals in order to prevent their falling 
into the hands of the Algerines. His biographers state that they were all 
ultimately recovered, though at considerable intervals, and that he dis- 
posed of them all provisionally, until he was enabled to complete the 
bargain. 



PARKYNS, THE WRESTLER. 

Quern modo stravisti longo in certamine, Tempus, 
Hie reeubat Britonum elarus in orbe pugil. 

Jam primum stratus ; prseter te vieerat omnes ; 
De te etiam victor, quando resurget, erit. 

Here lies the famed British Wrestler, whom you, O 
Time, after a long struggle, have laid low. He has never 
been thrown down before ; he had overcome every one 
but you ; and he will vanquish you when he rises again. 

Concerning this memorable Wrestler and his books, there is a very 
entertaining article in the eleventh volume of the Retrospective Review. 
Parkyns' principal work was a treatise on the Cornish Hugg, or Inn-Play 
Wrestling. He was a baronet, and the ancestor of a noble family, and 
was educated under Dr Busby at Westminster. By Sir Isaac Newton's 
invitation he attended that philosopher's lectures on the Laws of Motion 
at Cambridge. In Parkyns' monument he is represented as standing in 
his country- coat, and postured for a Cornish hug. On one side is a well- 
limbed figure, lying above the scythe of Time, shewing that the wrestler 
is in the pride of his youth. On the other side, is the same figure 
stretched in his coflan, with Time standing, scythe in hand, triumphantly 
over it ; whilst the sun is represented as just gone down, marking the de- 
.cline of life, and the fate even of the strong man. Parkyns himself 
directed this monument, or " marble effigies of Sir Thomas Parkyns," as 
he called it, to be put up in the chancel of his church, in his life-time, 
in order, as he observes, that he might look upon it, and say, " What is 
life?" 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 79 

XI. 

ARETINO. 

Condit Aretini cineres lapis iste sepultos, 

Mortales atro qui sale perfricuit. 
Intactus Deus est illi ; causamque rogatus, 

Hanc dedit : Ille quidem non mihi notus erat. 

Le temps, par qui tout se consume, 
Sous cette tombe a mis le corps 
De TAretin, de qui la plume 
Blessa les vivans, et les morts. 
Son encre noircit la memoire 
De monarques, de qui la gloire 
Est vivante apres le trepas : 
Et s'il na pas contre Dieu meme 
Vomi quelqu'horrible blaspheme, 
C'est qu'il ne le connoissoit pas. 

Francis I. presented Ai-etino with a chain of gold. Henry VIII. sent 
him three hundred gold crowns. Charles V. allowed him a pension. 
Julius III. by a papal bull appointed him a Cavaliere of the order of St 
Pietro. He assumed the titles of IL DivinOi II Flagello de Principi. His 
portrait was painted by Titian ; and medals were struck of him repre- 
senting him decorated with a chain of gold, and on the reverse, the 
princes of Europe bringing him tributes. He was, however, the subject 
of many personal attacks which made Boccalini call him " the loadstone 
of clubs and daggers." He was killed by a fall from his chair in a fit 
of laughter at the relation of some act of profligacy committed by his 
sisters. Before death, however, he seized the opportunity of improvising 
an Italian verse to the priest who was administering extreme unction, in- 
dicatory of his fear that so much grease would di-aw upon him the rats. 
(See various other curious anecdotes of Aretino, in Roscoe's Leo X.) 



80 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XII. 

MIRANDOLA. 

Johannes jacet hie Mirandola : csetera norunt 
Et Tagus, et Ganges, forsan et Antipodes. 

Here lies John Mirandola. The rest is known to the 
Tagus, the Ganges, and, perhaps, to the Antipodes. 

Pope parodied this epitaph in the following lines : 
Here lies Lord Coningsby ; be civil : 
The rest God knows — perhaps the Devil. 

Spence relates that Pope said : " You know I love short inscriptions, 
and that may be one reason why I like the epitaph of the Count of Mi- 
randola so well. Some time ago I made a parody of it for a man of a 
very opposite character." The words "be civil," appear to be a hotchy 
such as not unfrequently occurs even in some of Pope's most finished 
compositions, exemplifying the distich of Hudibras : 
Rhymes the rudders are of verses, 
By which, like ships, they steer their courses. 

Mr Hallam, in his History of Literature, relates various particulars 
concerning Picus of Mirandola, who was called the phoenix of his age, 
and considers him a much superior and more wonderful person than 
the fabulous Admirable Crichton. Picus of Mirandola died at the age 
of 31, A.D. 1494. 



XIII. 

NERO. 

Quis neget ^Enese magna de stirpe Neronem 
Sustulit hie matrem : sustulit ille patrem. 

Who will deny that Nero is descended from the pious 
and renowned ^neas ? They both took off their parents, 
the one from the flames, the other by the sword. 

Suetonius relates that it was remarkable that the Emperor Nero bore 
nothing more patiently than scurrilous language and railing ; and treated 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 81 

none with more gentleness than such as traduced him by abusive reflec- 
tions and lampoons. Many things of that kind were posted up in the 
town, or otherwise spread among the people, both in Greek and Latin, 
Suetonius gives several instances of these ancient Pasquinades. The 
distich in' the text is one of them. Among the remarkable sayings of 
Romans, adverted to in a former page, is that of Agrippina, who when 
she saw the assassins that were sent by her son to kill her, exclaimed, 
" Strike my womb." 

The lines in the text were applied to King William III. The imme- 
diate occasion of them was the publication of Dryden's Virgil. The poet 
was very indignant at Tonson his publisher (a keen Whig, and secretary 
to the Kit-Cat Club) attempting to drive him into dedicating his trans- 
lation of Virgil to King William; and, in a letter to his son Charles, 
Dryden writes that Tonson had anticipated such a dedication by giving 
iEneas a hooked nose in all the plates. Tonson's design of aggravating 
-<Eneas's nose out of comphment to WiUiam the III., was the subject of 
the following epigram, taken from the model of the Pasquinade on Nero 
in the text : 

Old Jacob, by deep judgment swayed. 
To please the wise beholders. 

Has placed old Nassau's hook-nosed head 
On poor Eneas' shoulders. 

To make the parallel hold tack 

Methinks there 's little lacking ; 
One took his father pick-a-pack, 

And t' other sent him packing. 



XIV. 

SWIFT. 

Vertiginosus, inops, surdus, male gratus amicis, 
Non campana sonans, tonitru non ab Jove missum, 
Quod mage mirandum, saltern si credere fas est, 
Non clamosa meas mulier jam percutit aures. 

Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone. 
To all my friends a burden grown ; 
No more I hear my church's bell. 
Than if it rang out for my knell : 



82 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

At thunder now no more I start, 
Than at the rumbling of a cart. 
Nay, what's incredible, alack! 
I hardly hear a woman's clack. 

The Latin and English verses are both by Swift. In the Countess of 
Suffolk's Correspondence there are several letters addressed to that lady 
by Swift, in which he alludes to his infirmities. In one letter, dated 
19 Aug., 1727, when he was sixty years old, he writes : 

" About two hours before you were born I got my giddiness by eating 
a hundred golden pippins at a time at Richmond. And, when you were 
four years and a quarter old bating two days, having made a fine seat, 
about twenty miles further in Surrey, where I used to read and sleep, 
there I got my deafness ; and these two friends have visited me, one or 
the other, every year since, and being old acquaintance, have now thought 
fit to come together. So much for the calamities wherein I have the 
honour to resemble you : and you see your sufferings are but children in 
comparison of mine ; and yet, to shew my philosophy, I have been as 
cheerful as Scarron." 



XV. 

WALLER AND SACHARISSA. 

ArcadisB juvenis Thirsis, Phoebique sacerdos 
Ingenti frustra SacharisssB ardebat amore : 
Hand Deus ipse olim Daphni majora canebat, 
Nee fuit asperior Daphne, nee pulchrior ilia : 
Carminibus Phoebo dignis premit ille fugacem 
Per rupes, per saxa, volans per florida vates 
Pascua ; formosam nunc his componere nympham. 
Nunc illis crudelem insana mente solebat : 
Audiit ilia procul miserum, citharamque sonantem, 
Audiit, at nullis respexit mota querelis ; 
Ne tamen omnino caneret desertus, ad alta 
Sidera perculsi referunt nova carmina montes. 
Sic non qusesitis cumulatus laudibus, olim 
Elapsa reperit Daphni sua laurea Phoebus. 

Thirsis, a youth of the inspired train, 
Fair Sacharissa lov'd, but lov'd in vain : 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 83 

Like Phoebus sung the no less amorous boy ; 
Like Daphne she as lovely and as coy : 
With numbers he the flying nymph pursues, 
"With numbers such as Phoebus' self might use. 
Such is the chase, when love and fancy leads, 
O'er craggy mountains, and through flowery meads ; 
Invok'd to testify the lover's care. 
Or form some image of his cruel fair : 
Urg'd with his fury like a wounded deer, 
O'er these he fled, and now approaching near, 
Had reacht the nymph with his harmonious lay, 
Whom all his charms could not incline to stay ; 
Yet what he sung in his immortal strain. 
Though unsuccessful, was not sung in vain : 
All but the nymph that should redress his wrong, 
Attend his passion, and approve his song. 

Like Phoebus thus, acquiring unsought praise. 
He catcht at Love, and fiU'd his arm with Bays. 

The Latin verses, it is believed, are an unique specimen of Waller's 
composition in that language. The English version is also by Waller. 
Sacharissa was the Lady Dorothea Sidney, eldest daughter of the Earl of 
Leicester, who rejected Waller, and married the Earl of Sunderland. 
Thirds had another Arcadian sweetheart in his Amoret, or Lady Sophia 
Murray. He thus begins a very pretty poem addressed to Amoret : 

Fair, that you may truly know 

What you unto Thirsis owe, 

I will tell you how I do 

Sacharissa love, and you. 

Waller afterwards married a third sweetheart. It does not appear 
that this lady gave birth to any of his pastorals ; but he had thirteen 
children by her. 

Clarendon mentions that Waller was nearly thirty years of age when 
he began to write poetry, and that he was regarded as a " tenth muse." 
Waller's smoothness has been immortalized by Pope ; and Dryden finds a 
charm in his " turns of expression," beyond any merit of the same kind 
that he could discover in other English authors. He goes so far as to 
say that English numbers were in their nonage until the appearance of 
Waller: he must have closed his eyes to the full-blown beauties of 
Spenser. 



U — 2 



84 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XVI. 

CROMWELL, (BY LOCKE.) 

Pax regit Augusti, quern vicit Julius orbem ; 

lUe sago factus clarior, ille toga. 
Hos sua Koma vocat magnos, et numina credit : 

Hie quod sit mundi victor, et ille quies. 
Tu bellum et pacem populis das, unus utrisque 

Major es : ipse orbem vincis, et ipse regis. 
Non hominem e coelo missum te credimus, unus 

Sic poteras binos qui superare Deos ? 

A peaceful sway the great Augustus bore, 
O'er what great Julius gain'd by arms before. 
Julius was all with martial trophies crown' d, 
Augustus for his peaceful arts renowned. 
Rome calls them great, and makes them deities ; 
That for his valour, this for his policies. 
Thou, mighty prince, than both art greater far, 
Who rule in peace that world you gain'd in war. 
You sure from heaven a perfect hero fell. 
Who thus alone two pagan gods excel. 

Locke wrote this epigram at Christchurch, to which college he repaired 
in the year 1651, and whence he underwent that memorable expulsion 
concerning which Mr Fox observes, that it indicated some instinctive 
sagacity in the government of the time, which pointed out to them, even 
before he had made himself known to the world, the man who was de- 
stined to be the most successful adversary of superstition and tyranny. 
None of our Sovereigns have, like Cromwell, been honoured with poeti- 
cal panegyrics by four such eminent authors as Milton, Dryden, Waller, 
and Locke. 



IL] BIOGRAPHY. 85 

xvn. 

JAMES IL 

Qui prius augusta gestabat fronte coronam, 

Exigua nunc pulvereus requiescit in urna. 

Quid solium — quid et alta juvant ! terit omnia lethum. 

Verum laus fidei ac morum hand peritura manebit. 

Tu quoque, summe Deus, regem quem Kegius Hospes 

Infaustum excepit, tecum regnare jubebis. 

In this narrow sepulchre, a heap of dust, lies one who 
once wore a crown on his august brows. What is a throne 
or royal dignity? Death levels all such distinctions. 
Faith and virtue alone survive the grave. Hence thou, 
Omnipotent God, wilst ordain that the unhappy monarch 
to whom a French sovereign afforded refuge and hospi- 
tality, shall reign with thee in thy heavenly kingdom. 

This epitaph on the monument of James II. in the Church of St Ger- 
main, appears to have been substituted in the year 1824 for one inscribed 
on it in 1814, by the directions of King George IV. It would seem that 
the French did not approve of a George claiming the merit of doing 
honour to the ashes of the abdicator, to the disparagement of a Louis 
who fed him when alive and destitute. There is a prose inscription at 
St Germains, in addition to the poetical one in the text. And there is a 
third inscription in the chapel of the Scotch College at Paris, on a monu- 
ment erected by the Duke of Perth, a.d. 1703. On the top of this monu- 
ment stood an urn, containing the brains of James IL (see Collect. Topgr. 
Vol. VII.) 



XVIII. 
MACHIAVEL. 



Quisquis adis ; sacro flores et serta sepulchro 
Adde puer, cineri debita dona ferens. 

Nam veteres belli et pacis qui reddidit artes 
Jampridem ignotas regibus et populis. 

Etruscae Machiavellus honos et gloria linguae 
Hie jacet : hoc saxum non coluisse, nefas. 



86 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Whoever thou be that approaehest, bring ehaplets of 
flowers and funeral gifts to the ashes which this sepulchre 
contains. For they are the remains of one who restored 
the ancient arts of war and peace, which had long fallen 
into oblivion among kings and nations. It is Machiavel 
that lies here, the glory and honour of the Tuscan lan- 
guage. Not to pay reverence to this stone, is to commit 
a sacrilege. 

Few names have been so universally reprobated as that of Machiavel. 
And Mr Hallam, in his History of Literature, adventures, perhaps not 
altogether successfully, to palliate the perfidious doctrines inculcated in 
Machiavel's treatise called The Prince. Mr Hallam points out the histo- 
rical and political treasures that abound in Machiavel's works, and con- 
siders his style eminent for " simplicity, strength, and clearness." He 
places Machiavel at the head of the prose writers of Italy. The epitaph 
is by Antonius Vacca. Butler, in all the editions of his Hudibras pub- 
lished in his lifetime, very erroneously attributes the origin of the appel- 
lation Old Nio (a Saxon deity) to Nic. Machiavel; though he may have 
been more correct in assigning the palm of deceit to spiritual impostors. 

Nick Machiavel had never a trick 

(Though he gave his name to our Old Nick) 

But was below the least of these 

That pass in the world for holiness. 



XIX. 

ASCHAM. 
(A) 



Aschamum extinctum patriae Graiseque Camcense 

Et Latise vera cum pietate dolent. 
Principibus vixit charus, jucundus amicis 

Ke modica ; in mores dicere fama nequit. 

His country's muses join with those of Greece 
And mighty Eome, to mourn the fate of Ascham; 
Dear to his prince, and valued by his friends, 
Content with humble views through life he pass'd, 
While envy's self ne'er dared to blast his fame. 



II,] BIOGRAPHY, 87 

(B) 
Non minus est arcu quam lingua clarus utraque 
Sic ornat patriam, sic juvat ille suam. 

He is equally distinguished by his bow, and by his 
knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues. It is thus 
he edifies, thus he delights his country. 

The first epitaph is by Buchanan ; the English version is by the trans- 
lators of Bayle. Of Ascham's Greek there is a well-known testimony of 
a most interesting kind regarding his interview with Lady Jane Grey at 
Broadgate, where she was reading Plato, whilst the rest of the company 
were hunting in the park. Ascham's introduction to his treatise called 
The Schoolmaster, though less known, is scarcely less interesting. He 
was to read an oration of Demosthenes against JSschines to Queen Eliza- 
beth at Windsor, during the plague in London. Previous to his lecture, he 
dined with Lord Burleigh and the ministers of state composing the Queen's 
court, and he relates the conversation that arose relative to an occurrence 
which one of the party had learned the same morning, of some Eton 
boys running away from school, to avoid whipping. Ascham's Toxophilus, 
or treatise on Archery, is represented by him to be " pleasant for gentle- 
men and yeomen of England for their pastime to read, and profitable for 
their use to follow both in war and peace." The work contains an 
exalted encomium upon an animal more highly venerated by the Romans 
than the moderns, a Goose, 



XX. 

SILIUS ITALICUS, HIS PIOUS CARES FOR THE MEMORIES 
OF VIRGIL AND CICERO. 

(A) 
Silius hsec magni celebrat monumenta Maronis, 

Jugera facundi qui Ciceronis habet. 
Heredem dominumque sui tumulive Larisve 

Non alium mallet, nee Maro, nee Cicero, 

Silius pays funeral obsequies at Maro's tomb, and is 
the possessor of Cicero's farm. Surely neither Virgil nor 
Cicero would have preferred any individual now alive for 
the guardian of their lares or their sepulchres. 



88 GEMS OP LATIN POETKY. [Cii. 

(B) 
Jam prope desertos cineres, et sancta Maronis 

Nomina qui coleret pauper, et unus erat. 
Silius optatse sueeurrere censuit umbrae, 

Silius et vatem, non minor ipse, tulit. 

To honour Maro's bust and sacred shade. 
One swain remain'd, deserted, poor, alone ; 

Till Silius came his pious toils to aid, 

In homage to a name scarce greater than his own. 

Silius purchased an estate which had been the Academy of Cicero, 
where that orator and philosopher composed his dialogue De Fato ; and 
also a villa at Naples in which Virgil had formerly lived, and was adja- 
cent to his tomb. Martial's epigrams in the text have been pressed into 
the controversy concerning the authenticity of the site commonly as- 
signed to Virgil's tomb, which mainly depends on the interpretation to 
be given to a passage in Statius's description of the Bay of Naples (see 
Addison's Travels in Italy , and Eustace's Classical Tour). A laurel, sup- 
posed to have been planted by Petrarch near Virgil's tomb, has often 
been celebrated in poetry. Niebuhr writes that he visited the tomb as a 
pilgrim, and retained a branch of the celebrated laurel as a sacred relic. 
De Lille's enthusiasm for the memory of Virgil is in accordance with that 
of Silius. 

Helas! Je n'ai point vu ce sejour enchante, 
Ces beaux lieux ou Virgile a tant de fois chante. 
Mais, j'en jure et Virgile, et ses accords sublimes, 
J'irai : de I'Appennin je franchirais les cimes. 
J'irai, plein de son nom, plein de ces vers sacres, 
Les lire aux memes lieux qui les ont inspire. 

An epitaph on the poet Sannazano (Sincerus) indicates that he was 
buried close to Virgil's tomb : 

Da sacro cineri flores, hie Ille Maronis 
Sincerus musa proximus, et tumulo. 

Upon thy sacred dust be flow'rets spread. 

He sung like Maro once, he rests near Maro dead. 

Silius, in his epic poem, expresses a beautiful eulogy on Virgil, where 
he introduces the shade of the future poet to Scipio in the infernal 
regions. There is a very interesting letter by Pliny concerning Silius. 
Pliny writes, that at the age of seventy-five, Silius starved himself to 
death, in consequence of being aflBiicted with an imposthume, which was 
deemed incurable : and among other circumstances of his life, notices that 
Silius had " several villas furnished with large collections of books, statues, 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 89 

and pictures, which he more than enjoyed, he even adored ; particularly 
the statue of Virgil, of whom he was so passionate an admirer, that he 
celebrated the anniversary of that poet's birth-day with more solemnity 
than his own ; especially at Naples, where he used to approach his tomb 
with as much reverence as if it had been a temple." 

The works of Silius Italicus were discovered by Poggius during the 
sitting of the Council of Constance, at the bottom of a tower in the 
monastery of St Gal, situate about twenty miles from Constance; the 
works of Quintilian and Valerius Flaccus were discovered at the same 
place on the same occasion. 



XXI. 

LUCAN. 
(A) 

Haec est ilia dies, quae magni conscia partus, 
Lucanum populis, et tibi, PoUa, dedit. 

Heu ! Nero crudelis, nullaque invisior umbra : 
Debuit hoc saltern non licuisse tibi. 

This is the Day, known by its mighty birth, 
Which Lucan gave to thee, and to the Earth. 
O cruel Prince ! more cursed in no decree, 
This, at least, was not lawful unto thee. 

(B) 

Vatis ApoUonei magno memorabilis ortu 
Lux redit, Aonidum turba favete sacris ! 

Haec meruit, cum te terris, Lucane, dedisset, 
Mixtus CastalisB Boetis ut esset aquae. 

The Day memorable for the illustrious birth of Apollo's 
Bard is returned. Hark, in silence, to the solemn rites of 
the Muses upon that auspicious event ! Surely the river 
Bcetis, which gave you, Lucan, to the world, merits to be 
conjoined in everlasting fame with the waters of Castalia. 

The expression, " This act at least ought not to have been within the 
scope of your power," seems to have reference to a memorable saying of 



90 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Nero, That no emperor before him had been aware of the extent of his 
own power. With regard to the river Boetis, it is remarkable how many 
reputed Roman writers of eminence were, in fact, foreigners to Rome. 
Lucan, Martial, Silius, and Seneca, were Spaniards. Terence, extolled 
by Julius Csesar for the purity of his style, was an African. 

There is extant an elaborate birth-day Ode on Lucan, by Statins. 
These tributes to departed genius are the more interesting as indicating 
a practice of keeping alive the memory of that poet by celebrating his 
birth-day with " incense kindled at the Muses* flame." Statins concludes 
his poem with an apostrophe to Lucan in the Elysian fields, accompanied 
by Pompey, Cato, and the Pharsalian heroes, whence he beholds Nero 
at a distance in Tartarus, struck with terror by the avenging ghost of his 
mother. The poet admonishes PoUa that the time is come when her 
very tears may be mingled with sweetness, and her sorrow with festivity, 
for the husband whom she had lamented it was now permitted her to 
adore. 

The great stain of Lucan's character is that mentioned by Tacitus, of his 
having impeached his own mother in an attempt to screen himself from 
the consequences of a conspiracy in which he had been detected. Tacitus 
contrasts this and similar acts of perfidy by other conspirators, with the 
memorable example of fortitude and magnanimity exhibited on the same 
occasion and under the same circumstances, by a woman of the name of 
Epicharis (Tac. Ann. Lib. xv. s. 56, 67). She was put to the torture, but 
neither stripes nor fire could extort a word from her to inculpate any one. 
On the second day the executioners were conveying her again to the 
place of torture, though her hmbs were rent and dislocated ; but she 
took from her breast the girdle that braced her garment, and having fas- 
tened one end of it, made a noose for her neck, and throwing herself 
from her seat, hung suspended with the whole weight of her body : in her 
mangled condition the remains of life were soon extinguished. Tacitus 
relates that, " the famous poet Lucan," when the blood flowed freely from 
him, and the vital heat had left his hands and feet, repeated the lines, in 
his own poem, which describe a soldier dying in the same condition. His 
own verses were the last words he uttered. Some, think the description 
of Lycidas at the point of death, in the third book of the Pharsalia 
(v. 635), were the lines Lucan repeated. Others contend for the four 
lines in the ninth book (v. 811). 

Lucan died at the early age of twenty-seven. His works are excluded 
from the Delphin Classics, apparently in consequence of their Republican 
tendency. Blair observes that "Lucan's sentiments are so high, and 
his fire, on occasions, so great, as to atone for many of his defects ; and 
that passages may be produced from him which are inferior to none in 
any poet whatever." Racine used to call Lucan "Virgil ivre;" but Cor- 
neille preferred him to Virgil. Mr Hallam, in his History of Literature, 
observes that "Lucan was the favourite study of Corneille, and that no 
reader can admire the one who has not a strong relish for the other." 



I 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 91 

Voltaire in panegyrizing the actress Clairon, writes, in allusion to Cor- 
neille's imitations of Lucan's Roman characters : 

Corneille, ce peintem' des Remains majestueux, 
T'aurait vue aussi noble, aussi Romaine, qu'eux. 
Lucan is made a redoubtable champion in Swift's Battle of the Books, 
and he is conspicuous in Strada's celebrated Prolusion, of which a descrip- 
tion is given in the Guardian. That prolusion is described in Numbers 
115, 119, and 122. It represents a pageant on the Tiber for the amuse- 
ment of Leo X., consisting of a floating mountain, made to resemble 
Parnassus. Lucan and other celebrated Roman poets are introduced, and 
recite compositions in imitation of the peculiarities of their poetic talents. 
The exclamations and remarks of the audience, are, in fact, a lively form 
of literary criticism. Lucan is made to rear higher upon Pegasus than 
any of the other poets, but the bystanders are in constant alarm lest he 
should slide oflF the horse's back. An ancient inscription, purporting to 
have been dictated by Nero himself in honour of Lucan, is, if it be genu- 
ine, a very curious memorial : 

M. Annseo . Lucano . Cordubensi . Poetse. 
Beneficio . Neronis . Fama . Servata. 



XXII. 

LEO X. 
(A) 

Delicise humani generis, Leo Maxime, tecum 
Ut simul illuxere, interiere simul. 

The refined pleasures of the human race, Great Leo, 
as they first came to light with you, so with you they are 
extinguished. 

(B) 

Saeva sub extrema si forte requiritis hora 
Cur Leo non potuit sumere, vendiderat. 

Leon sans sacramens expire. 
Comment les auroit-il recus ? 
Avant sa mort le Maitre Sire 
Des long-tems les avoit vendus. 



92 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

The first epigram was inscribed on Leo's tomb in the church of the 
Vatican. There are numerous Latin epigrams by contemporary poets, 
both laudatory and condemnatory of Leo. His name (Leo, a Lion), as 
well as that of his mother, who was of the Orsini family (Ursa, a Bear), 
gave occasion to very extensive poetical punning. Perhaps there is no 
poetical encomium extant by which Leo would have preferred being 
recommended to posterity than by Pope's : 

But see each muse, in Leo's golden days. 
Starts from her trance, and trims her withered bays. 
Rome's ancient genius o'er its ruins spread 
Shakes off the dust, and rears his reverend head. 
Then sculpture and her sister arts revive. 
Stones leap'd to form, and rocks began to live. 
With sweeter notes each rising temple rung, 
A Raphael painted, and a Vida sung. 

The sale of Indulgences by Leo, as it gave occasion to the first efforts 
of Luther which ultimately led to the establishment of the Protestant 
Reformation, impart an historical importance to the second epigram. 
Roscoe mentions the current report that Leo's last illness was so sudden 
that there was not time to administer to him the sacrament of extreme 
unction. There is a curious complimentary poem addressed to Leo by 
Valeriani, not noticed by Roscoe, from which it appears, by a particular 
description of the poet, that there was then at Rome a monster very simi- 
lar to that of the Siamese Twins. This the poet compares to the opposi- 
tion Council then sitting at Lyons, which had been assembled at the insti- 
gation of the Spanish Cardinal Carvajal, and for the purpose of overruling 
which the Lateran Council was convened at Rome. Valeriani insists that 
the imbecility of the monstrous union of a Gallo- Spanish assembly is 
indicated by the monstrous twin-birth of which both the parts were 
infirm and unhealthy ; and which was also prophetic of the Pope, in his 
capacity of lioUf destroying every kind of monster. 

The three memorable papacies of Alexander VI., Julius II., and 

Leo X., have been described in a manner that will remind the reader 

of Dryden's Secular Masque, and Addison's Mythology of English Kings : 

Olim habuit Cypris sua tempera ; tempera Mavors 

Olim habuit ; sua nunc tempera Pallas habet. 

Once Venus ruled, next Mars usurp'd the throne. 
Now Pallas calls these favour'd seats her own. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 93 

XXIII. 

POPE ALEXANDER VI. 

Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum. 

Emerat ille prius ; vendere jure potest. 
De vitio in vitium, de flamma transit in ignem : 

Roma sub Hispano deperit imperio. 
Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero, Sextus et Iste : 

Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit. 

Alexander exposed for sale the Keys, the Communion, 
Christ himself. A Purchaser of the Papal See, no marvel 
that he should sell what he had bought. — Tarquin was the 
Sixth King ; Nero the Sixth Emperor; so our Pope assumes 
the title of the Sixth — Rome has always been ruined by 
Sixths. 

This is one of the earliest instances of Pasquinades. Pasquin was a 
tailor, whose shop was the resort of a set of persons who used to banter 
those who passed by it (as the Greeks were accustomed to do from the 
pubHc bridges). After Pasquin's death, a mutilated statue, supposed to 
be the torso of Menelaus, was dug up near his shop, and was again erected 
where it was found. People called it the statue of Pasquin : and it was 
considered allowable to stick upon it any libel against any body. In 
these libels Pasquin was often made to address another statue called 
Manforio, which replied in a manner equally scurrilous. This conver- 
sation between statues has been imitated by Andrew Marvel and by Swift. 
The following is a Pasquinade on Pope Pius VI., whose arms were a 
double-headed eagle, two stars, a lily, and a boy blowing its leaves. 

Redde aquilam imperio, Gallorum lilia regi, 
Sidera redde polo, csetera sume tibi. 

Give the eagles back to the Emperor, the stars to the sky, the lilies to 
the French king, and keep the puff for yourself. 

Adrian VI. ordered Pasquin's statue to be thrown into the Tiber, but 
revoked the fallible order. 

Alexander purchased the Papacy by such open bribes, that he sent 
four mules laden with silver to one cardinal, and presented another with 
five thousand gold crowns; of twenty cardinals, only five were not 
bought. The mules laden with silver may remind the reader not only 
of Pope Alexander, but of Alexander Pope's " bulky bribes" and " en- 
cumbered villany," for which Paper Credit is a modem substitute. The 
character of Pope Alexander is thus drawn by Roscoe. 



94 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

"Were we to place implicit confidence in the Italian historians, no 
period of society has exhibited a character of darker deformity than that 
of Alexander VI. Inordinate in his ambition, insatiable in his avarice 
and his lust, inexorable in his cruelty, and boundless in his rapacity; 
almost every crime that can disgrace humanity is attributed to him with- 
out hesitation, by writers whose works are published under the sanction 
of the Roman church. He is also accused of having introduced into his 
territories the detestable practice of searching for state oflfences by means 
of secret informers ; a system fatal to the liberty and happiness of every 
country that has submitted to such a degradation. As a pontiff, he 
perverted his high ofl&ce by making his spiritual power on every occa- 
sion subservient to his temporal interests; and he might have adopted 
as his emblem that of the ancient Jupiter, which exhibits the lightning in 
the grasp of a ferocious eagle. His vices as an individual, although not 
so injurious to the world, are represented as yet more disgusting ; and the 
records of his court afford repeated instances of a depravity of morals, 
inexcusable in any station, but abominable in one of his high rank and 
sacred office. Yet, with all these lamentable defects, justice requires that 
two particulars in his favour should be noticed. In the first place, what- 
ever have been his crimes, there can be no doubt but they have been 
highly overcharged. That he was devoted to the aggrandizement of his 
family, and that he employed the authority of his elevated station to 
establish a permanent dominion in Italy in the person of his son, cannot 
be doubted ; but when almost all the sovereigns of Europe were attempt- 
ing to gratify their ambition by means equally criminal, it seems unjust 
to brand the character of Alexander with any peculiar and extraordinary 
share of infamy in this respect. Whilst Louis of France and Ferdinand 
of Spain conspired together to seize upon and divide the kingdom of 
Naples, by an example of treachery that never can be sufficiently exe- 
crated, Alexander might surely think himself justified in suppressing the 
turbulent barons, who had for ages rent the dominions of the church 
with intestine wars, and in subjugating the petty sovereigns of Romagna, 
over whom he had an acknowledged supremacy, and who had in general 
acquired their dominions by means as unjustifiable as those which he 
adopted against them." 

^annazarius and Guide Posthumo in their Latin verses, especially their 
epitaphs on Alexander VI., have loaded the memory of that Pope with 
accusations of almost every conceivable crime against society, nature, 
and religion. He is reputed to have died by poison which he took by 
mistake, but which he had prepared for the supper of a large company of 
cardinals. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 95 

XXIV. 

C^SAR BORGIA. 

Qui modo prostrates jactarat cornibus Ursos, 

In latebras Taurus concitus ecce fugit. 
Nee latebras putat esse satis sibi ; Tibride toto 

Cingitur, et notis vix bene fidit aqiiis. 
Terruerat montes mugitibus ; obvia nunc est, 

Et facilis cuivis prseda sine arte capi. 
Sed tamen id magnum ; nuper potuisse vel Ursos 

Sternere, nunc omnes posse timere feras. 
Ne tibi, Eoma, novae desint spectacula PompaB ; 

Amphitheatrales reddit arena jocos. 

The Bull (Caesar Borgia) who lately tossed the van- 
quished bears, (the Orsini family and their adherents) be- 
hold, now flies into hiding-places : confines himself within 
the limits of the Tiber, and scarcely deems himself safe 
under its protection ! Lest Home should want a novel 
spectacle for the amusement of its inhabitants, here is an 
arena in which are exhibited the games of the ancient am- 
phitheatres. 

A few days after the election of Pius III. who succeeded Alexander VI., 
Caesar Borgia repaired to Rome, when finding himself in imminent danger 
from the troops of the Orsini, he retreated to the castle of St Angelo. 
This event is commemorated by Sannazaro in the above lines. As Machi- 
avelli observes, the contests of that period may be regarded by posterity 
as a combat of wild beasts, in which the strongest and most ferocious 
animal destroys the rest. After much research among the Enghsh lives 
of Csesar Borgia for the origin of the appellation, the Bull, as applied to 
him, the author was referred by Mr Hall, the intelligent librarian of the 
Athenaeum, to a passage in Tomasi's Delia Vita Del Duca Valentino, 
whereby it appears that Borgia acquired celebrity by cutting off, with 
one blow of a sword, the neck of a bull : the circumstance is also adverted 
to in Dumas's Celebrated Crimes. 

The character of Csesar Borgia is thus drawn by Mr Roscoe. 

" Of this extraordinary character it may with truth be observed, that 
his activity, courage, and perseverance, were equal to the greatest at- 
tempts. In the pursuit of his object he overlooked or overleaped all 
other considerations ; when force was ineffectual he resorted to fraud ; 



96 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

and whether he thundered in open hostility at the gates of a city, or 
endeavoured to effect his purpose by negotiation and treachery, he was 
equally irresistible. If we may confide in the narrative of Guicciardini, 
cruelty, rapine, injustice, and lust, are only particular features in the 
composition of this monster; yet it is difficult to conceive that a man so 
totally unredeemed by a single virtue, should have been enabled to main- 
tain himself at the head of a powerful army ; to engage in so eminent a 
degree the favour of the people conquered ; to form alliances with the 
first sovereigns of Europe; to destroy or overturn the most powerful 
families of Italy, and to lay the foundations of a dominion, of which it is 
acknowledged that the short duration is to be attributed rather to his ill- 
fortune and the treachery of others, than either to his errors or his 
crimes. If, however, he has been too indiscriminately condemned by one 
historian, he has in another met with as zealous and as powerful an enco- 
miast, and the maxims of the politician are only the faithful record of the 
transactions of his hero. On the principles of Machiavelli, Borgia was 
the greatest man of the age. Nor was he, in fact, without qualities 
which in some degree compensated for his demerits. Courageous, mu- 
nificent, eloquent, and accomplished in all the exercises of arts and arms, 
he raised an admiration of his endowments which kept pace with, and 
counterbalanced the abhorrence excited by his crimes. That even these 
crimes have been exaggerated, is highly probable. His enemies were 
numerous, and the certainty of his guilt in some instances gave credibility 
to every imputation that could be devised against him. That he retained, 
even after he had survived his prosperity, no inconsiderable share of 
public estimation, is evident from the fidelity and attachment shown to 
him on many occasions. After his death, his memory and achievements 
were celebrated by one of the most elegant Latin poets that Italy has 
produced. The language of poetry is not, indeed, always that of truth ; 
but we may at least give credit to the account of the personal accomplish- 
ments and warlike talents of Borgia ; although we may indignantly reject 
the spurious praise, which places him among the heroes of antiquity, and 
at the summit of fame." 

Csesar Borgia lost all the dominions which he had acquired by treachery, 
poison, fratricide, and slaughter. He was conveyed as a prisoner out of 
Italy into Spain : he escaped indeed, but only to engage in the service of 
the king of Navarre, and in that service to die by a "petty fortress and a 
dubious hand." He has adorned many tales, besides operas; and our poet 
Pope, as well as many other writers, has pointed a moral with his name : 

If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven's design, 

Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline ? 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 97 

XXV. 

LUCRETIA BORGIA. 

Teque meum venero, Coelestis Borgia, Sydus, 

Qua nullum Hesperio purius orbe micat. 
Tu mihi carmen eris, tu lucida callis ad astra, 

Qua niveas animas lactens orbis habet. 
AdsertsB superis, Juno, Pallasque, Venusque, 

Juno opibus, Pallas moribus, ore Venus. 
Regna tibi meliora, animique nitentior ardor, 

Plusque tua igniferi forma vigoris habet. 
Quis neget his coelum meritis ? 

Celestial Borgia ! Thee I venerate as the brightest 
Star that illumines the nations of the West. You are the 
theme of my Muse, you my conductress to those starry 
regions, where the purest spirits revel in the glories of the 
milky way. If Juno find a seat in Olympus from her power, 
Pallas from her wisdom, Venus from her beauty — surely 
Lucretia may challenge a right to the celestial abodes, 
from her combined pretensions of eminent power, brilliant 
intellect, and a form which kindles love more intensely than 
the flambeau of Cupid. 

Many similar poems by Strozza eulogistic of Lucretia Borgia, the 
daughter of Pope Alexander VI., the sister of Csesar Borgia, are encoun- 
tered by verses of Sannazaro and other poets imputing to her the most 
horrible vices and crimes. A dissertation on the character of this remark- 
able woman, whose name occupies a considerable space in the early his- 
tory of Italy, will be found appended to Roscoe's Life of Leo X. It is a 
vindication of the character of Lucretia against a cloud of alleged calum- 
niators both popish and protestant, including the discriminating Gibbon. 
Indeed, if the author of the Historic Doubts had reason to complain of 
misrepresentations and perversions which have prejudiced the public 
mind against King Richard III., those imputations are light as air in com- 
parison of the horrible enormities which in vulgar belief are associated 
with the name of Lucretia Borgia. 



98 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXVI. 

LUTHER. 

(A) 
Koma orbem domuit, Romam sibi Papa subegit, 

Viribus ilia suis, fraudibus iste suis : 
Quanto isto major Lutherus, major et ilia, 

Istum, illamque uno qui domuit calamo ! 
I, nunc, Alciden memorato Graecia mendax : 

Lutheri ad calamum ferrea clava nihil. 

Rome once subdued the world by war, 

By art the Pope crushed her again : 
One Monk excels them both by far. 

For both were vanquished by his pen ! 
Go now, thou fabling Greece, and boast no longer 

Alcides' club — for Luther's quill is stronger. 

(B) 
Occidit omnigena venerandus laude Lutherus, 

Qui Christum docuit non dubitante fide. 
Ereptum deflet vero hunc Ecclesia luctu, 

Cujus erat doctor, verius, imo, pater. 
Occidit Israel prasstans auriga Lutherus, 

Quern mecum sanus lugeat omnis homo. 
Nunc luctumque suum lachrymoso carmine prodat. 

Hoc etenim orbatos flere, dolere decet. 

Luther ! illustrious name, is now no more ;— 
Let the true Church with streaming eyes deplore 
A Teacher firm in faith, — nay, rather say 
A Father from his children snatch'd away. 
Luther is gone — The Pilot of our course : 
O let the tearful Muse his name rehearse ! 
Let all the pious join with me to mourn, 
Orphans should thus bedew a father's urn. 

The first Latin Epigram is by Beza, and the latter by Melancthon. 
The translations are from Lawson's autobiography of Luther. He gives 



n.] BIOGRAPHY. 9d 

three translations of the first Epigram: but he has omitted, without 
apparently being conscious of the metrical anomaly, the last line but one 
of Melancthon's Epigram. Melancthon pronounced the funeral Oration 
upon Luther in the same church of Wittenberg where his remains now lie 
by the side of those of his illustrious friend. A translation of Melanc- 
thon's eloge is given by Dr Cox in his Life of Melancthon. 

In a square at Wittenberg stands a statue in bronze of Luther, erected 
in 1821 by a Prussian artist. It represents in colossal proportions the 
full-length figure of Luther in the simple drapery of the reformed clergy : 
he supports on his left-hand the Bible, kept open by the right hand rest- 
ing on the left page, and pointing to a passage of Scripture. The pedes- 
tal on which the statue stands is formed of one solid block of red polished 
granite, twenty feet high, ten feet wide, and eight feet deep, which is sup- 
posed to weigh 650,000 pounds. On each of the sides of the pedestal there 
is a central tablet, bearing a German inscription, to the efiect that " If 
the Reformation be the work of man, it will fall ; if it be God's work, it 
is imperishable." 



XXVII. 

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 

Prayer repeated by her immediately before her Execution. 

O Domine Deus, speravi in te ! 

O care mi Jesu, nunc libera me ! 

In dura catena, in misera poena, desidero te ! 

Languendo, gemendo, et genuflectendo, 

Adoro, imploro, ut liberes me ! 

In this last solemn and tremendous hour, 
My Lord, my Saviour, I invoke thy power ! 
In these sad pangs of anguish and of death. 
Receive, O Lord, thy Suppliant's parting breath ! 
Before thy hallow'd Cross she prostrate lies — 
O hear her prayers, commiserate her sighs ! 
Extend thy arms of mercy and of love. 
And bear her to thy peaceful realms above. 



100 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [€h. 

XXVIII. 
LADY JANE GREY. 

Non aliena putes, homini quae obtingere possunt 
Sors hodierna mihi, eras erit ilia tibi ! 

Steel not your heart against feeling for another's woe : 
his calamity of to-day may be yours of to-morrow ! 

These lines derive their only interest from the circumstance of having 
been written vrith a pin by Lady Jane Grey when confined in the Tower 
of London. The inscriptions in the Tower of London, and those that 
were found in the Bastile at Paris, have an interest independent of any 
poetical merit. With regard to Lady Jane's use of a pin to supply the 
want of writing materials, in an interior cell of the Bastile there was 
found a feeble inscription on a stone fronting the door, of which the 
following words only were distinguishable : " Grave par I'aide d'un dent 
du qui je n'ai point aucune besoin. Le Malheureux De Prie." Sir 
Thomas More wrote in the Tower his last letter to his daughter with a 
coal. 



XXIX. 

MILTON. 



Csecus, inops, patriaeque superstes tempore iniquo, 

Miltonus magnum sedulus urget opus. 
Degenerem setatem plaeide contemnit, et altum 

Supra fortunse munera radit iter. 
Nox oeulos licet a^terna caligine obumbret, 

Paupertasque gravi vexet acerba manu, 
Non minus arrectum studio, ardentemque fulhore, 

Per sacra Musarum devia raptat amor. 
Mens ea, quae Mundi fines processerat extra, 

Non erat humanis debilitanda malis. 

Poor blind Survivor of his Country's shame, 
Still Milton holds his fearless flight to fame ; 
His mental eye corruption calm surveys. 
And smiles contempt upon degenerate days. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 101 

With him Urania still her vigil keeps, 

Inspiring strains of rapture as he sleeps. 

From Siloa's brook, the living stream supplies, 

And pours celestial light in sightless eyes. 

His Spirit soaring in ascent sublime 

Beyond the flaming bounds of space and time. 

Earth's transient ills o^er him have lost their power, 

Whose soul to God's eternal throne shall tower. 

Nor want nor woe that spirit shall subdue, 

Which ranges radiant all creation through. 

The Latin and English lines both derire great interest from their au- 
thors. The Latin are by the Marquis of Wellesley, the English by Quincy 
Adams, dated from "Washington. No description, however, of Milton's 
blindness can vie with his own reflections on the subject in the Paradise 
Lost, the Sampson Agonistes, and the sonnet to Cyriac Skinner. 



XXX. 

MILTON COMPARED WITH HOMER AND VIRGIL, 

Grsecia Mseonidem, jactat sibi Roma Maronem, 
Anglia Miltonum jactat utrique par em. 

Three Poets in three distant ages born, 
Greece, Italy, and England, did adorn. 
The first in loftiness of thought surpass'd ; 
The next in majesty ; in both the last. 
The force of nature could no further go ; 
To make a third she join'd the other two. 

The distich was written in honour of Milton, when at Rome, by 
Selvaggi. The hexastich is that celebrated one of Dryden which was 
placed beneath the picture of Milton in the fourth edition of the Paradise 
Lost, published under the particular patronage of Lord Somers and 
Bishop Atterbury, and to which Dryden was a subscriber. Warton 
observes, that if any other proof were wanting of the high respect and 
veneration which Dryden entertained of the superior genius of Milton, 
these six nervous lines will ever remain as a strong and indisputable 
testimony. Dryden probably had the ideas in his hexastich suggested by 
Sclvaggi's distich ; but he exhibits how genius may convert a feeble spark 
into a brilliant coruscation. 



102 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXXI. 

MILTON AND HIS FATHER. 

Kec tu perge precor sacras contemnere Musas, 
Nee vanas inopesque puta, quarum ipse peritus 
Munere, mille sonos numeros componis ad aptos, 
Millibus et vocem modulis variare canoram 
Doctus, Arioni merito sis nominis haeres. 
Nunc tibi quid mirum, si me genuisse poetam 
Contigerit, charo si tarn prope sanguine juncti 
Cognotas artes, studiumque affine sequamur ? 
Ipse volens Phoebus se dispartire duobus, 
Altera dona mihi, dedit altera dona parenti, 
Dividuumque Deum genitorque puerque tenemus. 

Nor you aifect to scorn the Aonian Quire, 

Bless'd by their smiles and glowing with their fire. 

You ! who by them inspir'd, with art profound 

Can wield the magic of proportioned sound. 

Through thousand tones can teach the voice to stray. 

And wield to harmony its mazy way — 

Arion's tuneful heir ! Then, wonder not 

A poet-child should be by you begot. 

My kindred blood is warm with kindred flame ; 

And the Son treads his Father's track to fame. 

Phoebus controls us with a common sway, 

To you commends his lyre, — to me his lay. 

Whole in each bosom makes his just abode, 

And Child and Father own the one though varied God. 

In the course of the address of which the foregoing lines are a part, 
Milton takes a most interesting review of the studies of his youth, and of 
the care his Father took in his education. He concludes with pouring 
forth a flood of filial gratitude. The whole poem is translated in the 
Appendix to Symmons*s Life of Milton. On the alliance of music and 
poetry ("the marriage of immortal verse") Milton is, in several parts of 
his works, enthusiastic in his eloquence ; as, particularly, in his sonnet to 
the musical composer, Lawes : 

Thou honour'st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing 

To honour thee! 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 103 

In the notes to Milton's poem to his father, in Todd's Milton, are some 
notices of the musical productions of Milton's father. Sir J. Hawkins, 
and Dr Burney, in their Histories of Music, have selected specimens of 
his skilL 



XXXII. 

MILTON RUSTICATED, PERHAPS FLOGGED. 

Jam nee arundiferum mihi eura revisere Camum 

Nee dudum vetiti me laris angit amor. 
Nuda nee arva plaeent, umbrasque negantia moUes : 

Quam male Phoebicolis convenit iste locus ! 
Nee duri libet usque minas perferre magistri, 

Cceteraque ingenio non suheunda meo. 
Si sit hoe exilium patrios adiisse penates, 

Et vaeuum curis qtia grata sequi : 
Non ego vel profugi nomen, sortemque reeusa, 

Laetus et exilii eonditione fruor. 

No love of late forbidden scenes now pains 
Cam's sedgy banks and Granta's cloister'd fanes. 
I like not fields that gasp in vain for shades, 
Fields most unfriendly to th' Aonian Maids. 
Ill too I bear a Master's threat'ning look. 
And other things my spirit will not brook. 
If this be banishment — all cares aloof* — 
To live my own beneath a Father's roof — 
Still let an idle world condemn or not, 
Mine be a truant's name, — an exile's lot. 

In Todd's edition of Milton, the inferences which have been drawn 
from Milton's other things in the above passage are canvassed. Mr Todd 
says that the Register of the College proves that Milton did not lose a 
term before taking his degree. It is notorious that corporal punishment 
was formerly inflicted at the Universities : in the Paston Letters a mother 
writes about her son having been belashed at Cambridge. Dr Whitgift, 
the first Vice-Chanceller under the Ehzabethan Statutes, procured a 
decree of the Heads of Colleges, a.d. 1571, condemning all Undergradu- 
ates who were convicted upon " probable or sufficient evidence" of having 



104 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

entered the water, either for the purpose of swimming or of washing, 
whether by night or by day, in any part of the county of Cambridge, to be 
whipped publicly on one day in the hall of their College, in the presence 
of all the Fellows, Scholars, and other members, and, on the following 
day, in the public schools before the ordinary lecturer and his hearers. 
(B.A.s for the like offence were to sit in the stocks in their College-halls 
for an entire day). 

The local associations of Cambridge with the memories of many 
"whom genius gave to shine in every unborn age," are touched upon 
with poetic enthusiasm in Wordsworth's posthumous poem. As to Milton's 
reflections on the " reedy Cam," he has spoken of it with more reverence 
in his Lycidas ; and English poetry may reckon, among her choiest gems 
Gray's lines commemorative of those 

Brown o'er- arching groves, 

That contemplation loves, 

Where willowy Camus wanders with delight. 



XXXIII. 
MILTON BURNT'. 



Haud jam ultra vulgi bibulas illapsa per aures 
Dogmata, Principibus multum funesta ciebunt 
Irasque, insidiasqiie, et duri semina belli : 
Ardet enim fusis circum undique noxia flammis 
Pagina, damnataeque inhonesto funere chartss. 
Quanquam o si simili, quicunque hase scripserit Author, 
Fato sueeubuisset, eodemque arserit igne ! 
In medio videas flamma erepitante eremari 
Miltonum, (terris eoeioque inamabile nomen) 
Qui contemptorem regum, populique patronum 
Se tulit Angliaci, speciosas texere fraudes 
Doctus, et impuris leges obtendere coeptis. 
Sed tamen huie magnas animosa in carmina vires 
Diva dedit, geniumque implevit dexter Apollo : 
Seu bello accingat metuenda eominus hasta 
Luciferum gradientem, et vix Michaele minorem : 
Seu dicat primum temere jaeuisse Parentem 
Acclinem violis, et suave rubenti hyacintho. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 105 

O Caroli laudes tali si dicere versu 
Maluerit, non jam periisset vindice flamma : 
Sed seram famam seternum misisset in sevum, 
Unam passurus, mundo flagrante, ruinam. 

The public ear, too much inclined to imbibe seditious 
doctrines, will no longer be abused by opinions injurious to 
Princes and productive of Civil War — for all books having 
this tendency are decreed to be committed to the flames, 
and to perish by an ignominious fate. O, if every Author 
who ha^ penned such compositions were ordered to be 
burnt on the same funeral pile ! We should then behold 
in the midst of the crackling flames, burning along with 
his writings, Milton, a name detestable in heaven and 
upon earth — Milton, the contemner of Kings, the Patron 
of the People. True it is that his poetic genius seems to 
have been derived from the very inspiration of Apollo ; 
whether he depictures Lucifer grandly advancing with his 
formidable spear, and scarcely inferior to the Archangel 
Michael : or exhibits to us our first Parents in a state of 
bliss, reposing on banks of violets, and ruby- coloured 
hyacinths. O, if Milton had devoted his pre-eminent gift 
of poetry to the celebration of the praises of King Charles^ 
he would not have deserved to perish in the avenging fire. 
Then, indeed, he would have transmitted a Name to pos- 
terity, which would have lasted till that great conflagration 
which shall accomplish the ruin of a World. 

The Latin is from Musce Anglicance, a.d. 1683, from a poem on the 
famous Oxford Decree passed in that year, against " pernicious books, and 
damnable doctrines," anathematizing above twenty propositions, as false, 
seditious, impious, and heretical. The first of these is that all civil autho- 
rity is derived originally from the people; the second, that there is a 
compact, tacit or express, between the king and his subjects. The books 
containing these doctrines are ordered to be burnt in the court of the 
schools at Oxford. The Decree itself was publicly burnt by an order of 
the House of Lords, a.d. 1709. It is with reference to this Decree that 
Mr Fox, in his History, compares the Vice- Chancellor and Doctors of the 
University of Oxford to Dogberry, Verges, and his followers, in Shakspere's 
play of Much Ado about Nothing. Almost within living memory, Dr 
George, Provost of King's College, concludes a proposed epitaph for 
Milton with the line, Rege sub Augusto fas sit laudare Catonem! Cato 



106 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

was extolled under Augustus; may it therefore be lawful to eulogise 
Milton under George the Third! 

Perhaps the greatest injuries attempted against Milton's fame have 
been the endeavours to represent him as a plagiarist. Lauder deceived 
Dr Johnson and a portion of the public on this subject, by publishing 
extracts from the works of obscure writers of modern Latin, with inter- 
polations of a Latin translation of the Paradise Lost. Bishop Douglas 
exposed this fraud, and Lauder made a contrite confession of his impos- 
ture. In the library of the Athenaeum there is the copy of Lauder's book 
addressed to the two Universities, with Dr Johnson's Preface and post- 
script, that belonged to Mr Bowles ; it contains several curious manu- 
script notes. So late as the year 1844, an attempt has been piade by a 
literary gentleman of the name of Paolo, at Naples, to represent the 
Paradise Lost as a very pilfering plagiarism of a book scarcely known 
in England, the Adam,o Caduto of Salandra. (Voltaire had made a similar 
and unsuccessful attempt in regard to the Adamo of Andreini.) The fal- 
lacy of Paolo's opinions is exposed with great ability by Mr Spencer Hall, 
the accomplished librarian of the Athenseum: he has convicted the Nea- 
politan of bad chronology in regard to the period of Milton's residence in 
Italy. Paolo argues that Milton must have been familiar with the Adamo 
Caduto, which was first published in 1647, during his abiding among 
the literati at Rome. Mr Hall shews that he returned to England in 
1639. 



XXXIV. 

SPENSER. 



Hie prope Chaucerum situs est Spenserius, illi 
Proximus ingenio, proximus et tumulo. 

Anglica, te vivo, vixit, plausitque Poesis, 
Nunc moritura timet, te moriente, mori. 

Here lies close to Chaucer the famed poet Spenser; 
as he is next to him in his grave, so was he next to him 
in his genius. English Poetry during your lifetime, O 
Spenser, flourished, and reflected on you the renown you 
conferred on her. Now you are departed, she fears that 
herself will die. 

Spenser was buried, at his particular desire, close to Chaucei-'s grave. 
These lines would appear to have been dropt into Spenser's grave, or 



n.] BIOGRAPHY. 107 

fastened to his pall, according to a good old practice of our literary an- 
cestors, and which was retained in our colleges within living memory. 
The first distich is copied from Sannazaro's epitaph, the last from Ra- 
phaeFs, both of which have been given in this collection. On Spenser's 
monument, which was erected by the Duchess of Dorset thirty years after 
his death, the dates both of his birth and death were misstated. Similar 
mistakes occur on the monuments of Sterne and Goldsmith. Sir J. Den- 
ham, in his verses on Cowle/s burial among the poets of "Westminster 
Abbey, styles Chaucer the Morning Star, and Spenser the Aurora of 
English poetry. 



XXXV. 

N^VIUS, 

Mortales immortales fieri si foret nefas 
Flerent Divae Camoenas Naevium Poetam ; 
Itaque postquam est Oreino traditus thesauro, 
Oblitei sunt Komae loquier Latina lingua. 

If blest immortals mortals might bemoan, 

Each heavenly Muse would Nsevius' loss deplore : 

Soon as his Spirit to the Shades had flown, 

In Kome the Koman tongue was heard no more. 

Aulus GeUius has preserved this among other epitaphs of the more 
ancient Roman poets, apparently written by the poets themselves with a 
view to their own monuments. They are translated by Eeloe and also 
by Dunlop. That of Nsevius is entertaining from being one of the most 
impudent epitaphs on record. Aulus Gellius observes of it, " that it is 
full of Campanian arrogance." The remains of Nsevius are too insig- 
nificant to afford any criterion of his poetical merit. (See Dr Smith's 
Biog. Diet. Ncevius). The other epitaphs of Ennius, Pacuvius, and Plau- 
tus, have Uttle to recommend them, except as literary antiquities. There 
are several neat Latin epitaphs on the early Italian poets, as on Crinitus 
(closely copied from that of Pacuvius), Molza, and others. The most in- 
teresting of these, is, perhaps, that of Sannazarius, who implores his friend 
to collect the broken timbers of his shattered shipwrecked vessel, and to 
inscribe on his tomb : 

Actius hie jaceo. — Spes mecum extincta quiescit : 
Solus de nostro funere restat amor. 

I that he here am Actius. Extinguished Hope is buried in peace along 
with me : all that lives beyond my grave is Love. 



108 



GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. 



[Ch. 



XXXVI. 

NIGRINA. A FUNERAL URN. 

Cappadocum ssevis Antistius occidit oris 

Rusticus, o tristi crimine terra nocens ! 
Hettulit ossa sinu cari Nigrina mariti, 

Et questa est longas non satis esse vias : 
Cumque daret sanctam tumulis, quibus invidet, urnam, 

Visa sibi est rapto bis viduata viro. 

Far in a savage Cappadocian dell 
By thee, Clime criminal ! Antistius fell, 
His bones Nigrina to her bosom prest, 
And all she had of comfort still carest. 
When the rich remnant home she would convey, « 
Through the long task she mourned the short'ning way: 
And when intomb'd the sacred urn she left, 
Of her dear lord she seem'd one direr time bereft. 



The feelings pourtrayed in the fourth and sixth h'nes of the epigram 
in the text, and the sixth and eighth of the weaker translation (Elphin- 
stone's), are exquisitely touching. This dear affection for the funeral 
urn brings to our recollections the circumstance of a famous Grecian 
actor, the duty of whose part it was to bear the funeral urn of Orestes, 
and who produced a rapturous emotion in the audience by the state of 
feeling into which he had worked himself up, by substituting on the 
stage the funeral urn of his own son. The whole description of Nigrina 
will remind the reader of Agrippina bearing the urn of Germanicus, as 
related by Tacitus. 

"Agrippina pursued her voyage without intermission. Neither the 
rigour of the winter, . nor the rough navigation in that season of the year, 
could alter her resolution. She arrived at the island of Corcyra, oppo- 
site to the coast of Calabria. At that place she remained a few days, to 
appease the agitations of a mind pierced to the quick, and not yet taught 
in the school of affliction to submit with patience. The news of her arrival 
spreading far and wide, the intimate friends of the family, and most of 
the ofl&cers who had served under Germanicus, with a number of strangers 
from the municipal towns, some to pay their court, others carried along 
with the current, pressed forward in crowds to the city of Brundusium, 
the nearest and most convenient port. As soon as the fleet came in sight 
of the harbour, the sea-coast, the walls of the city, the tops of houses, 
and every place that gave even a distant view, were crowded with spec- 
tators. Compassion throbbed in every breast. In the hurry of their 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 109 

first emotions, men knew not what part to act : should they receive her 
with acclamations ? or would silence best suit the occasion ? Nothing was 
settled. The fleet entered the harbour, not with the alacrity usual among 
mariners, but with a slow and solemn sound of the oar, impressing deeper 
melancholy on every heart. 

" Agrippina came forth, leading two of her children, with the urn of 
Germanicus in her hand, and her eyes steadfastly fixed upon that precious 
object. A general groan was heard. Men and women, relations and 
strangers, all joined in one promiscuous scene of sorrow, varied only by 
the contrast between the attendants of Agrippina, and those who now 
received the first impression. The former appeared with a languid air; 
while the latter, yielding to the sensation of the moment, broke out with 
all the vehemence of recent grief." 



XXXVII. 

ANTONIUS PRIMUS. LIFE DOUBLED. 

Jam numerat placido felix Antonius aevo 

Quindecies actas Primus Olympiadas : 
Prseteritosque dies, et tutos respicit annos ; 

Nee metuit Lethes jam propioris aquas. 
NuUa recordanti lux est ingrata gravisque : 

Nulla subit, cujus non meminisse velit. 
Ampliat aetatis spatium sibi vir bonus : hoc est 

Vivere bis, vita posse priore frui. 

At length, my friend, (while time with still career 
Wafts on his gentle wing his eightieth year) 
Sees his past days safe out of fortune's pow'r, 
Nor dreads approaching fate's uncertain hour ; 
Reviews his life, and, in the strict survey ] 
Finds not one moment he could wish away, > 
Pleas'd with the series of each happy day. J 
Such, such a man extends his life's short space, 
And from the goal again renews the race : 
For he lives twice, who can at once employ 
The present well, and e'en the past enjoy. 

The translation is by Pope, as appears from a letter to the poet by 
Sir W. Trumball. Though Pope could "fix in one couplet more sense" 
than even Swift, according to the Dean's own acknowledgment, it may be 



110 



GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. 



[Ch. 



thought that his version very inadequately expresses the terseness of the 
two concluding lines of Martial's Epigram, to the effect that a good man 
amplifies his life, that is to say, he lives twice, for he can live over again 
the past in the pleasures of Memory. 

The moral of the Epigram is so edifying, and the manner in which 
it is expressed so captivating, that we cannot be surprized at both Ad- 
dison and Dr Johnson adopting from it a motto for their Essays, Spec^ 
tator^ No. 94, Rambler, No. 41. The rival papers bearing that motto, 
whilst they will be interesting from the contrast of the manner in which 
the same subject has been treated by two of our. most eminent moral 
writers, will afford the best possible illustration of the text. 

The following extract is from the Spectator. 

" The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas, as those of a 
fool are by his passions. The time of the one is long, because he does 
not know what to do with it ; so is that of the other, because he distin- 
guishes every moment of it with useful or amusing thoughts ; or, in other 
words, because the one is always wishing it away, and the other always 
enjoying it. How different is the view of past life, in the man who is 
grown old in knowledge and wisdom, from that of him who is grown old 
in ignorance and folly ! The latter is like the owner of a barren country, 
that fills his eye with the prospect of naked hills and plains, which produce 
nothing either profitable or ornamental ; the other beholds a beautful and 
spacious landscape divided into delightful gardens, green meadows, fruitful 
fields, and can scarce cast his eye on a single spot of his possessions, that 
is not covered with some beautiful plant or flower." 

The next extract is from the Rambler. 

" The time of life in which memory seems particularly to claim pre- 
dominance over the other faculties of the mind is our declining age. It 
has been remarked by former writers, that old men are generally narra- 
tive, and fall easily into recitals of past transactions, and accounts of 
persons known to them in their youth. When we approach the verge of 
the grave it is more eminently true. We have no longer any possibility 
of great vicissitudes in our favour ; the changes which are to happen in 
the world will come too late for our accommodation ; and those who have 
no hope before them, and to whom their present state is painful and irk- 
some, must of necessity turn their thoughts back to try what retrospect 
will afford. It ought, therefore, to be the care of those who wish to pass 
the last hours with comfort, to lay up such a treasure of pleasing ideas, 
as shall support the expences of that time which is to depend wholly 
upon the fund already acquired. In youth, however unhappy, we solace 
ourselves with the hope of better fortune, and however vicious, appease 
our consciences with intentions of repentance ; but the time comes at last, 
in which life has no more to promise, in which happiness can be drawn 
only from recollection, and virtue will be all that we can recollect with 
pleasure." 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. Ill 

XXXYIII. 
MARTIAL AND PLINY. 

(A) 

Dum mea Caecilio formatur imago Secundo, 

Spirat et arguta picta tabella manu ; 
I, liber, ad Geticam Peucen, Istrumque tacentem : 

Hsec loca, perdomitis gentibus, ille tenet. 
Parva dabis earo, sed dulcia, dona sodali : 

Certior in nostro carmine vultus erit. 
Casibus hie nuUis, nuUis delebilis annis, 

Vivet, Apelleum cum morietur opus. 

While for my friend the fond resemblance grows, 
And from the Master's hand the canvas glows, 
To Peuce, Muse, and peaceful Ister, go, 
Where he has laid the haughty nations low : 
A present small, but sweet, Cecilius give. 
Still in my lays my book shall ever live. 
There shall it accident and age defy, 
When th' Apellean pencil self shall die. 

(B) 

Nee doctum satis, et parum severum ; 
Sed non rusticulum nimis libellum, 
Facundo mea Plinio Thalia, 
I, perfer : brevis est labor peractsB 
Altum vincere tramitem Suburae. 
Illic Orphea protinus videbis, 
Udi vertice lubricum theatri ; 
Miranteisque feras, avemque regis, 
Eaptum quae Phryga pertulit tonanti. 
Illic parva tui domus Pedonis 
Cselata est aquilse minore penna. 

Sed ne tempore non tuo disertam 
Pulses ebria januam, videto. 



112 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Totos dat tetricse dies Minervse, 
Dum centum studet auribus virorum, 
Hoe, quod secula, posterique possint 
Arpinis quoque comparare chartis. 
Seras tutior ibis ad lueernas. 
Haec hora est tua, dum furit Lyseus ; 
Cum regnat rosa, cum madent capilli : 
Tunc me vel rigidi legant Catones. 

Go, wanton Muse, but go with care. 
Nor meet, ill-tim'd, my Pliny's ear ; 
He, by sage Minerva taught, 
Gives the day to studious thought. 
And plans that eloquence divine, ] 
Which shall to future ages shine, > 
And rival, wond'rous TuUy ! thine. ) 
Then, cautious, watch the vacant hour, 
When Bacchus reigns in all his powV ; 
When crown' d with rosy chaplets gay, 
E'en rigid Catos read my lay. 

The following letter of Pliny relative to Martial is very interesting. 
The first of the two Epigrams is generally considered, as well from the 
name as from other circumstances, to have reference to Pliny. The 
expression (sodali) " companion," and the sending of Martial's picture, 
indicate terms of closer familiarity with the Proconsul than might be 
collected from Pliny's letter. Pliny seems to have underrated Martial's 
merits, who was as much an Immortal as himself. 

" I have just received an account of the death of poor Martial, which 
much concerns me. He was a man of an acute and lively genius, and 
his writings abound with an agreeable spirit of wit and satire, conducted 
at the same time by great candour and good-natiu-e. When he left Rome 
I made him a present to defray the charges of his journey, which I 
gave him, not only as a testimony of my friendship, but in return for 
the verses with which he had complimented me. It was the custom of 
the ancients to distinguish those poets with honourable and pecuniary 
rewards, who had celebrated particular persons or cities in their verses ; 
but this generous practice, with every other that is fair and noble, is 
now grown out of fashion ; and in consequence of having ceased to act 
laudably, we consider applause as an impertinent and worthless tribute. 
You will be desirous, perhaps, to see the verses which merited this ac- 
knowledgment from me ; and I believe I can, from my memory, partly 
satisfy your curiosity, without referring you to his works : but if you are 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 113 

pleased with this specimen of them, you must turn to his poems for the 
rest. He addresses himself to his muse, whom he directs to go to my 
house upon the Esquilise ; but to approach me with respect." 

"Do you not think that the poet who wrote in such terms of me, de- 
served some friendly marks of my bounty then, and that he merits my 
sorrow now ? For he gave me the most he could, and it was want of 
power only, if his present was not more valuable. But to say truth, what 
higher can be conferred on man than honour, and applause, and immor- 
tality? — And though it should be granted, that his poems will not be 
immortal, still, no doubt, he composed them upon the contrary suppo- 
sition. Farewell." 



XXXIX. 

NERVA. 

(A) 

Frustra blanditise venitis ad me 

Attritis miserabiles labellis. 

Dicturus Dominum, Deumque non sum : 

Jam non est locus hac in urbe vobis. 

Ad Parthos proeul ite pileatos, 

Et turpes, humilesque, supplicesque 

Pictorum sola basiate regum. 

Non est hie Dominus, sed Imperator, 

Sed justissimus omnium Senator ; 

Per quem de Stygia domo reducta est 

Siccis rustiea Veritas capillis. 

Rome is no longer any place for flattering courtiers. 
Begone, ye cringing race, to where the high-capped Par- 
thians kiss the feet of their painted kings ! I am not 
going to sing of a Lord or of a God. There is no one here 
who arrogates such titles. But we have a Chieftain, and 
a Senator pre-eminent for justice. He it is who has 
brought back Truth in a rustic garb, and with unperfumed 
locks, from the Stygian caves in which she was hid, to 
dwell again in Rome, 

8 



114 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

(B) 
Contigit Ausoniae procerum mitissimus aulae 

Nerva : licet toto nunc Helicone frui. 
Kecta fides, hilaris dementia, cauta potestas. 

Jam redeunt : longi terga dedere metus. 
Hoc populi, gentesque tusQ, pia Roma, precantur : 

Dux tibi sit semper talis, et iste diu. 
Macte animi, quern rarus habet ; morumque tuorum, 

Quos Numa, quos hilaris posset habere Cato. 
Largiri, prsestare, breves extendere census ; 

Et dare, quae faciles vix tribuere dei ; 
Nunc licet, et fas est : sed tu, sub principe duro, 

Temporibusque malis, ausus es esse bonus. 

Nerva, the most mild of Roman Senators, has com- 
menced his reign. We are now admitted to the full 
enjoyment of Helicon. Fear has vanished, and in its place 
are substituted Good Faith, Moderation, and Clemency. 
All who wish well to Rome, wish that we may ever have 
such an Emperor as Nerva, and that himself may long be 
indulged to us. Now we may look forward to a grave yet 
not austere practice of Morals, becoming the dignity of 
Numa, and the cheerfulness of Cato ; and to a system of 
liberality for which even the Gods can scarcely supply 
resources. But thou, Great Emperor, wast a pattern of 
goodness even under a reign of iniquity. 

Addison, in his Dialogue on Medals, adverts to a coin illustrated by 
the first of these Epigrams regarding the Parthian caps. He also makes 
Cynthio (one of the parties to the Dialogue) very indignant at Martial's 
satirical reflections upon Domitian, whom the poet deluged with flatteries 
when alive. Ben Jonson, in the speech of Nohody, in an entertainment 
at Alford, indulges in a sarcasm on the dancing days of his deceased 
royal mistress, Elizabeth. Daniel, on the other hand, even in his con- 
gratulatory panegyric delivered to King James at Burleigh, purposely 
digresses to extol Queen Elizabeth, and to tell the King that he could not 

without wrong- 
So soon forget Her we enjoy'd so long. 

Dryden and Waller sung the praises both of Cromwell and Charles II. 
Sir W. Scott observes, that Dryden never recalled his former eulogy on 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 1)5 

Cromwell. Waller excused himself to Charles II. for having written so 
much better a panegyric on Cromwell than on the King, upon the ground 
that poets succeed best in fiction. 

Ben Jonson, in his panegyric on King James, chooses for a motto the 
line in the text, "Licet toto nunc Helicone frui." Dryden, in the 12th 
and 13th stanzas of his Threnodia Augustalis, has written a charming 
poetical description of the return of the Muses to England after the 
Restoration. At Rome, the death of Domitian broke the chains which 
fettered the Muse of Juvenal, and it exhibited to public view the writing 
tablets of PUny. The concluding line of the last Epigram was applied to 
Sir Randolph Crew, in Mr HoUis's speech on the impeachment of the Ship- 
money Judges ; Sir Randolph had been degraded by Charles I. for giving 
an opinion adverse to that memorable imposition. Swift, in his Rhapsody, 
thus adverts to the different language used by poets in regard to living, 
or to dead monarchs. 

"A prince, the moment he is crown'd, 
Inherits every virtue round. 
As emblems of the sovereign pow'r. 
Like other baubles in the Tow'r; 
Is generous, valiant, just, and wise. 
And so continues till he dies : 
His humble Senate this professes : 
In all their speeches, votes, addresses : 
But once you fix him in a tomb, 
His virtues fade, his vices bloom, 
And each perfection, wrong imputed, 
Is fully at his death confuted. 
The loads of poems in his praise. 
Ascending, make one funeral blaze; 
His panegyrics then are ceas'd, 
He grows a tyrant, dunce, or beast: 
As soon as you can hear his knell. 
This god on earth turns devil in hell : 
And, lo ! his ministers of state. 
Transformed to imps, his levee wait, 
Where, in the scenes of endless woe. 
They ply their former arts below; 
And as they sail in Charon's boat, 
Contrive to bribe the judge's vote. 
To Cerberus they give a sop. 
His triple-barking-mouth to stop; 
Or in the ivory-gate of dreams 
Project Excise and South-sea schemes ; 
Or hire their party-pamphleteers 
To set Elysium by the ears. 

8—2 



116 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Then, poet ! if you mean to thrive, 
Employ your Muse on kings alive ; 
With prudence gathering up a cluster 
Of all the virtues you can muster. 
Which form'd into a garland sweet, 
Lay humbly at your monarch's feet, 
Who, as the odours reach his throne, 
Will smile, and think them all his own: 
For law and gospel doth determine 
All virtues lodge in royal ermine; 
(I mean the oracles of both. 
Who shall depose it upon oath.) 
Your garland in the following reign, 
Change but the names, will do again/' 

Nerva reigned only two years. With regard to his declining the titles 
of Dominus, and Deus (a circumstance adverted to in the first epigram), 
Suetonius writes that Nerva's predecessor, Domitian, required his officers 
of state to adopt in their despatches the form of " Our Lord and God 
commands." Statins, however, mentions, that, at the Saturnalian ban- 
quet given by Domitian to the people of Rome, the appellation Dominus 
was prohibited to be used. 

Saturnalia ! Domitian ! unnumber'd they ciy. 
And extol their munificent host to the sky. 
To salute him their * Lord* had delighted the crowd. 
But this only indulgence is now not allowed. 
(See Dr Hodgson's spirited translation of Statius's description of 
Domitian's fete). 

Augustus would not allow himself to be called Dominus ; and Tiberius 
was averse to flattery. Pliny, in his Letters, calls the Emperor Trajan 
Dominus. Nerva was Deijied after his death. Virgil offered sacrifices on 
the altar of Augustus during that Emperor's life. Caligula established a 
priesthood for his own Godhead. The most opulent persons in the city 
offered themselves as candidates for this honor, and purchased it at im- 
mense prices. The victims sacrificed on the altar of God Cahgula were 
flamingos, peacocks, pheasants, and turkeys. In the night he used to 
invite the Moon when full to his embraces. In the daytime he talked 
in private to Jupiter Capitolinus ; one while whispering to him, and an- 
other turning his ear to him : sometimes he would rail aloud at Jupiter, 
and threaten to banish him; at last, prevailed upon by the entreaties of 
the God, as he said, and being invited to live with him, he made a bridge 
by which he joined the Palatium to the Capitol. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 117 

XL. 

SIR THOMAS MORE. 

Diim Morus immeritse submittit colla securi, 
Et flent occasum pignora cara patris. 

Immo, ait, infandi vitam deflete tyranni ; 
Non moritur, facinus qui grave morte fugit. 

Whilst More is on the point of submitting his neck to 
the unmerited axe, and his children are weeping at his 
cruel execution, he tells them — Lament for the life of a 
ruthless tyrant: He dies not, who by his death escapes 
from the perpetration of a grievous crime. 

The verses are by a contemporary Italian poet; but there does not 
seem to be any authority for the language they ascribe to Sir T. More. 
There is nothing in Roper's Life of Sir T. More to that effect. Neither 
in the few words which passed between him and his affectionate daughter, 
(commemorated by Rogers,) when she forced her way to him on the Tower 
wharf through halberds and battle-axes, nor in the letter he wrote to 
her with a coal, does any sentiment occur of the kind. On the con- 
trary, when Sir T. Pope informed More that the King had consented that 
his family mi^ht be present at his funeral, he replied, " Oh, how much 
beholden, then, am I unto his Grace, that upon my poor burial vouch- 
safeth to have so gracious consideration !" This, and some other sayings 
to the like effect, are omitted by Lord Campbell ; and they, doubtless, 
would have rendered his entertaining work less agreeable to read. Sir J. 
Mackintosh preserves the same prudent silence so necessary for popular 
writers. Erasmus, in relating the verdict of the jury at Sir T. More's trial, 
writes that the jury delivered " a verdict of Killim, that is to say, he was 
worthy of death." "Qui duodecim viri, quum per horse quartam partem re- 
cessissent, reversi sunt ad principes et judices delegates, et pronunciarunt 
Killim^ hoc est, dignus est morte." Lord Campbell instituted inquiries 
after Sir T. More's head, which, it appears, still remains in a vault of 
St Dunstan's Church in Canterbury, contained in a box open in front 
with an iron grating, and placed over the coffin of his beloved eldest 
daughter, just as she desired it might be laid after her death : she had 
secretly obtained it from London Bridge, where it had been exposed. 



118 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XLI. 

SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS CHILDREN. 

Quatuor una meos invisat epistola natos, 

Servat et incolumes a patre missa salus. 
Dum peragratur iter, pluvioque madescimus imbre, 

Dumque luto implicitus ssepius hseret equus. 
Hoc tamen interea vobis excogito carmen, 

Quod gratum, quanquam sit rude, spero fore. 
CoUegisse animi licet hinc documenta paterni, 

Quanto plus oculis vos amat ipse suis : 
Quern non putre solum, quem non male turbidus aer, 

Exiguusque altas trans equus actus aquas, 
A vobis poterant divellere, quo minus omni 

Se memorem vestri comprobet esse loco ; 
Nam crebro dum nutat equus, casumque minatur, 

Condere non versus desinit ille tamen. 

I desire this letter to reach my four children, and that 
the health I send in it may preserve them in safety. I 
write whilst pursuing a journey, drenched with rain, and 
my horse scarcely able to raise his feet out of the mud. 
Nevertheless, though in the midst of inconveniences, I 
manage to write a poem, rude indeed in numbers, but what 
I hope may touch my children's hearts. It will at least 
suffice to convince them of my paternal solicitude, and 
that my love for them exceeds any for my own eyes. The 
marshy ground, the cutting wind, and the fording of deep 
streams on a little horse, cannot distract my thoughts from 
my family : for though my nag stumbles, and threatens 
me over and over again with a fall, I go on imperturbably 
stringing together verses that may fill a Father's letter. 

The lines in the text are the commencement of a poem by Sir Thomas 
More, addressed to his daughters Margaret, EUzabeth, Cicely, and his son 
John, sweetest of children (dulcissimis liberis) as he calls them. Like 
Sir T. More, Erasmus tells us that he composed his celebrated Encomium 
on Folly whilst sitting on his horse. Sir T. More proceeds, in some lines 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 119 

quoted by Lord Campbell, to remind his children of the gentleness with 
which, when occasion required, he had flogged them, protesting that the 
rod he made use of was only a peacock's tail, " Flagrum Pavonis nil nisi 
Cauda fuit," and that he had laid it on them sparingly, "Hanc tamen 
admovi timideque et molliter ipsam," for fear of leaving on their persons 
any impressions of his handy- work, " Ne vibex teneras signet amara nates." 



XLII. 

COKE AND BACON. 

Ex dono Auctoris. 
Auctori consilium. 



Instaiirare paras veterum documenta sophorum : 
Instaura leges, justitiamque prius. 

By the gift of the Author. 
Advice to the Author. 

You undertake a restoration (Instauratio) of ancient 
philosophy : first restore the laws and justice of your country 
(which you have infringed and violated). 

Bacon's presentation copy of his Novum Organum, containing the 
above lines in Sir Edward Coke's handwriting, is stiU preserved at Holk- 
ham. The book has a device of a ship sailing; over which Sir Edward 
Coke has written, 

It deserveth not to be read in schools. 
But to be freighted in the ship of fools. 

Lord Bacon, on his part, wrote a letter of acrimonious advice to 
Sir Edward Coke, commencing thus : " Supposing this to be the time 
of your aflliction, that which I have propounded to myself is, by taking 
this seasonable advantage, like a true friend, though far unworthy to be 
counted so, to shew you your true face in a glass. First, therefore, behold 
your errors: in discourse you like to speak too much, &c." In both 
instances the advisers detracted more from their own fame than from that 
of their ever-to-be-admired advisees. The Novum Organum was the 
Second Part of Bacon's Instauratio Magna (which title is alluded to in 
the Epigram), that was intended to be divided into Six Parts. The 
design of the Novum Organum was to suggest a more perfect method of 



120 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

using the rational faculty, to lay the foundations, and recommend the use 
of Inductive Philosophy. This, as Voltaire expresses it, was the scaffold 
with which the New Philosophy was to be raised. Coke would not haye 
agreed with the quaint Cowley in styling Bacon Lord Chancellor of Nature, 
as well as of Law. (An analysis and familiar exposition of the Novum 
Organum was published by Dr Hoppus.) Does the reader require a 
poetical antidote to Lord Coke's renom? he may find one in Ben Jonson's 
beautiful Ode on Bacon's birth- day. 



XLIII. 

SIR EDWARD COKE'S DIARY. 

Sex horas somno, totidem des legibus sequis, 
Quatuor orabis, des epulisque duas ; 
Quod superest ultra sacris largire camoenis. 

Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six. 
Four spend in prayer — the rest on Nature fix. 

The above is the version to be found in Lord Teignmouth's Life of 
Sir W. Jones. An original MS., with Sir W. Jones's corrections, is 
written upon a fly-leaf of a copy of Gilbert's Evidence, in the possession 
of the Author. It is as follows : 

"E. C. 

be six address'd; 

Six hours to sleep allot, to law the same applied ; 

F Pray feast sweet claim 

Pray four ; feast two ; — the rest the Muses claims the rest 

the Muse claims all beside." 

Sir W. Jones's suggested improvement of Sir E. Coke's advice has 
been productive of some literary mistakes. 

In the same fly-leaf of Gilbert, the lines will be found to stand thus : 

W. J. 

Seven hours to Law, to soothing slumber seven. 
Ten to the world allot, and all to Heaven. 
1784. 

In Mr Macaulay's critical Essay, in which he reviews Croker's Life 
of Johnson, Sir W. Jones's version is quoted thus: — 

" Six hours to law, to soothing slumber seven ; 
Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven." 



n.] BIOGRAPHY. 321 

Mr Croker having mentioned that he had difficulty in understanding 
what Sir W. Jones meant to do with his twenty-fourth hour, Mr Macaulay 
comments on his dulness of comprehension. He says that the point is a 
wretched conceit ; when you expect the couplet to end with one to heaven, 
you are surprised by the ending ' all to heaven,' but that the couplet 
never, before Mr Croker, perplexed man, woman, or child. It is, however, 
now seen that Mr Croker's perplexity, and Mr Macaula/s strictures 
on Sir W. Jones's supposed conceit, are altogether founded on a wrong 
reading of six for seven, — not the first time that these numbers have 
been confounded. 

There is in the possession of the Right Hon. Sir E. Ryan a very 
interesting diary kept by Sir W. Jones, from the period of his wife 
leaving India, up to the very night before his death ; and bearing, in the 
last entries, indications of severe malady. Two of the official clerks of 
Sir W. Jones are still alive : one of them is an East India Director. 
There are several interesting anecdotes relating to him that have never 
been published, and which rest on indisputable authority. Nor, perhaps, 
was a person of Lord Teignmouth's political views the most fit author to 
depicture in proper colours the man who, with the learning of the Greeks, 
imbibed their enthusiastic love of liberty, and who first conveyed to 
English ears the inspiring answer of one of their patriotic poets to the 
question, "What constitutes a state?" 

Lord Campbell does not appear to have had the advantage of reading 
the Author's work on the Advantages of a Classical Education, in which 
the above details appear, for in quoting the lines of Sir W. Jones, in his 
Life of Lord Coke, his Lordship has fallen into the vulgar error. 

The Author remembers being present when Sir Vicary Gibbs was 
shewn the original portrait of Lord Coke in Trinity College, Cambridge, 
(the College both of Coke and Bacon), and when, on allusion being made 
to his filling, like Lord Coke, the office of a Chief Justice, Sir Vicary 
immediately replied, " So were I equalled with him in renown !" 



122 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch, 

XLIV. 

SIR EDWARD COKE'S KITCHEN. 

Jus condire Cocus potuit, sed condere jura 
Non potuit ; potuit condere jura Cocus. 

The Cook who once inhabited this kitchen could make 
sauce, but he could not make laws : our new Cook (Coke) 
can supply the deficiency of his Predecessor. 

It could have been wished that Lord Campbell, from whose book the 
distich in the text is taken, (a book most becoming in its subject, and 
most worthy in its execution of the literary leisure of a great lawyer), had 
translated it for the edification of the public ; the sting seems to turn on 
the double meaning of the words, jus and cocus. There is a misprint in 
Lord Campbell, which the learned reader will detect. 

Sir Edward Coke, during his memorable imprisonment in the Tower, 
was lodged in a low room which had once been a kitchen, where he found 
an inscription written on the door of it by a wag, " This room has long 
wanted a Cook" (Coke). Lord Campbell relates an anecdote of King James 
assigning to the great lawyer another nickname, that of Captain Coke, 
leader of the faction in Parliament. His Lordship cites this anecdote 
from the Sloam MSS. in the British Museum. It had been previously 
cited from those MSS. by the Author, in his Oi/er of Poisoning : it is a 
curious coincidence, that the same needle should be found in the same 
bottle of hay, by two lawyers, whose visits to the British Museum are 
probably " rare and far between." (In the Author's Oyer of Poisoning 
will be found numerous private notes of Sir E. Coke, that were seized 
among his papers, and which had never before been published.) 



XLV. 

KING JAMES I. 

(A) 
King James's Visit to Cambridge. 

Dum petit Infantam Princeps, Grantamque Jacobus, 
Quisnam horum major sit, dubitatur, amor ? 

Vincit more suo noster, nam millibus Infans 
Non tot abest, quam nos regis ab ingenio. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 123 

While Prince to Spain, and King to Cambridge goes, 
The question is, whose love the greater shows ? 
Ours, like himself, o'ercomes, for his wit 's more 
Eemote from ours than Spain from Britain's shore. 

(B) 

King James's present of his Basilicon Doron. 

Quid Vaticanum Bodleianumque objieis, hospes ? 
Unicus est nobis Bibliotheea Liber. 

Do not set up the Vatican or the Bodleian against 
our Library : — we have a single Book which is worth any 
Library in the world. 

These Epigrams were composed by Herbert, the Public Orator of the 
University of Cambridge, whom the King used to call the jewel of that 
University, and were recited to the King whilst dining at Newmarket. 
The meaning of the conceit in the first Epigram appears to be, that King 
James shewed greater affection or condescension in visiting Cambridge, 
than Prince Charles shewed in visiting the Infanta at Madrid. Why ? 
Because we Cantabs are farther distant from the King in intellect, than 
Prince Charles was from the Infanta in space. Both the Epigrams are 
curious specimens of the perverted taste and political servility pf the 
times. 



XLVL 

COWLEY. 



Aurea dum volitant late tua scripta per orbem, 
Et Fama seternum vivis, Divine Poeta, 
Hie placida jaceas requie, Custodiat urnam 
Cana Fides, vigilentque perenni lampade Musae, 
Sit sacer iste locus, Nee quis temerarius ausit 
Sacrilega turbare manu Venerabile Bustum. 
Intacti maneant, maneant per secula dulcis 
Couleij cineres, servetque immobile saxum. 

While through the world thy labours shine 
Bright as thyself, thou Bard divine ; 



124 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Thou in thy fame wilt live, and be 
A partner with eternity. 

Here in soft peace for ever rest, 
(Soft as the love that fill'd thy breast :) 
Let hoary Faith around thy urn. 
And all the watchful Muses, mourn. 

For ever sacred be this room ; 
May no rude hand disturb thy tomb. 
Or sacrilegious rage or lust 
Affront thy venerable dust. 

Sweet Cowley's dust let none profane. 
Here may it undisturb'd remain ; 
Eternity not take, but give. 
And make this stone for ever live. 

This is tlie epitaph on Cowley in Westminster Abbey, wherein he is 
styled the Pindar, Horace, and Virgil of the English nation. The 
monument was erected by Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the Zimri of 
Dryden, whose death-bed is immortalized by Pope, and whose biography 
deserves to be investigated with greater attention than has hitherto been 
bestowed upon it. The Latin is attributed to Dr Knipe. Not sufficiently, 
perhaps, read and appreciated in the present day, Cowley was extolled 
by his contemporaries for the vices, as much as for the excellencies of 
his poetry, beyond all the poets of his day, ir^uding Milton. Lord 
Clarendon, in the interesting details he gives regarding his early friends, 
observes that "Ben Jonson was the best judge of, and fittest to prescribe 
rules for poetry and poets, of any man who had lived with or before him, 
or since: if Mr Cowley had not made a fiight beyond all men, with that 
modesty yet, to ascribe much of this to the example and learning of Ben 
Jonson." 

Addison in his poem on the Greatest English Poets, felicitously ex- 
presses some of the peculiarities of Cowley's poetry. 

Great Cowley then (a mighty genius) wrote, 

O'er-run with wit, and lavish of his thought : 

His turns too closely on the reader press. 

He more had pleas'd us, had he pleas'd us less. 

One glittering thought no sooner strikes our eyes 

With silent wonder, but new wonders rise 

As in the milky way. — 

Addison, in the remaining lines, may be thought to lavish too much 
praise on Cowley's Pindarics, and not to do adequate justice to the ex- 



n.] BIOGRAPHY. 125 

quisite touches of sentiment, and the vein of sprightliness which distin- 
guish several of his minor poems. Pope, indeed, dwells on his pensive 
vein as that most likely to survive the memory of his once-admired 
conceits. 

Though daring Milton sits sublime, 

In Spenser native muses play. 
IS'or yet shall Waller yield to time, 
Nor pensive Cowley's moral lay. 

A passage in Cowle/s lines on his friend Harve/s death, are beauti- 
fully applied by Curran : 

"And this soothing hope I draw from the dearest and tenderest 
recollections of my life, from the remembrance of those attic nights and 
those refections of the gods which we have spent with those admired and 
respected and beloved companions who have gone before us; — over 
whose ashes the most precious tears of Ireland have been shed. Yes, my 
good lord, I see you do not forget them ; I see their sacred forms passing 
in sad review before your memory ; I see your pained and softened 
fancy recalling those happy meetings, when the innocent enjoyment of 
social mirth expanded into the nobler warmth of social virtue, and the 
horizon of the board became enlarged into the horizon of man ; — when 
the swelling heart conceived and communicated the pure and generous 
purpose, — when my slenderer and younger taper imbibed its borrowed 
light from the more matured and redundant fountain of yours. Yes, my 
lord, we can remember those nights without any other regret than that 
they can never more return ; for 

* We spent them not in toys, or lust, or wine : 
But search of deep philosophy, 
Wit, eloquence, and poesy ; 
Arts which I lov'd, for they, my friend, were thine.'" 



126 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 



a 



XLVII. 
COWLEY ON HIS OWN DEATH. 

Hie, O Viator ! sub lare parvulo 
Couleius hie est eonditus. Hie jaeet 
Defunetus humani laboris 
Sorte, supervaeuaque vita. 

Non indeeora pauperie nitens, 
Et non inerti nobilis otio, 
Vanoque deleetis popello 
Divitiis animosus hostis. 

Possis ut ilium dieere mortuum, 
En terra jam nune quantula suffieit ! 
Exempta sit euris, Viator, 
Terra sit ilia levis, preeare. 

Hie sparge flores, sparge breves rosas, 
Nam vita gaudet mortua floribus, 
Herbisque odoratis eorona 

Vatis adhuc cinerem calentem. 

Here, passenger ! beneath this shade 
Lies Cowley, though entomb'd, not dead, 
Yet freed from human toil and strife, 
And all the impertinence of life ; 

Who in his poverty is neat, 
And even in retirement great ! 
With gold, the people's idol, he 
Holds endless war and enmity. 

Can you not say he has resigned 
His breath, to this small cell confin'd ? 
With this small mansion let him have 
The rest and silence of the grave. 

Strew roses here as on his hearse. 
And reckon this his fun'ral verse : 
With wreaths of fragrant herbs adorn 
The yet surviving Poet's urn. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 127 

XLVIII. 

THE OLD MAN OF VERONA. 

Felixy qui patriis sevum transegit in agris, 

Ipsa domus puerum, quern videt ipsa senem, 
Qui baculo nitens in qua reptavit arena 

Unius numerat secula longa casse. 
Ilium non vario traxit fortuna tumultu, 

Nee bibit ignotas mobilis hospes aquas. 
Non freta mercator tremuit, non classica miles : 

Non rauci lites pertulit ille fori. 
Indocilis rerum, vicinse nescius urbis, 

Adspectu fruitur liberiore Poli : 
Frugibus alternis, non Consule computat annum. 

Autumnum pomis, ver sibi flore notat : 
Idem condit ager soles, idemque reducit, 

Metiturque sui rusticus orbe diem : 
Ingentem meminit parvo qui germine quercum, 

iEquaevumque videt consenuisse nemus. 
Proxima cui nigris Verona remotior Indis, 

Benacumque putat littora rubra lacum. 
Sed tamen indomitse vires, firmisque lacertis, 

^tas robustum tertia cernit avum. 
Erret, et extremos alter scrutetur Iberos; 

Plus habet hie vitaB ; plus habet ille viae. 

Happy the man who his whole time doth bound 
Within th' enclosure of his little ground : 
Happy the man whom the same humble place 
(Th' hereditary cottage of his race) 
From his first rising infancy has known, 
And by degrees sees gently bending down 
With natural propension to that earth 
Which both preserv'd his life and gave him birth : 
Him no false distant lights, by fortune set, 
Could ever into foolish wand'rings get ; 
He never dangers either saw or fear'd ; 
The dreadful storms at sea he never heard : 



128 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

He never heard the shrill alarms of war, 

Or the worse noises of the lawyer's bar : 

No change of Consuls marks to him the year : 

The change of seasons is his calendar : 

The cold and heat winter and summer shews, 

Autumn by fruits, and spring by flowers, he knows : 

He measures time by landmarks, and has found 

For the whole day the dial of his ground : 

A neighb'ring wood, born with himself, he sees, 

And loves his old contemporary trees : 

He's only heard of near Verona's name, 

And knows it, like the Indies, but by fame : 

Does with a like concernment notice take 

Of the Eed Sea, and of Benacus' lake : 

Thus health and strength he to a third age enjoys. 

And sees a long posterity of boys. 

About the spacious world let others roam. 

Thy voyage, Life, is longest made at home. 

This beautiful piece of Claudian has been translated by many hands, 
of whom Cowley, whose version is that in the text, is the most celebrated. 
The last line in the original would seem to convey a pun between the 
words vitce and vice, which occasions the translations to be somewhat non- 
sensical: and it is almost impossible to convey to English ears the 
beauties of the lines 

Qui baculo nitens in qua reptavit arena, 
-^qusevumque videt consenuisse nemus. 

A staff enables him to hobble over that ground on which he crawled 
when a child. — ^When he looks upon his grove, he calls to mind that its 
trees were small when he was small, and have grown with his growth, 
and have become old along with his old age. 



11. ] BIOGRAPHY. 129 

XLIX. 

CORYAT'S CRUDITIES. 

Cur, Coryate, tibi calcem Phoebeia Daphne 
Cinxerit, et nudse laurea nulla comae ? 

Verius at capitis pleni, Coryate, miserta, 
In calces imos Musa rejecit onus. 

Why does Daphne cover with her laurel your feet, and 
leave your hairs bare ? It is, I presume, because the Muse 
knew how full your head was, and therefore in pity laid her 
load upon your heels. 

The verses are written under a device of a pair of shoes covered with 
laurel. The introduction to Coryat's Crudities, is a most entertaining 
relic of literary wit. It consists of a laughable character of the author 
by Ben Jonson, and a large collection of mock panegyrics, in every lan- 
guage, upon Coryat, particularly in regard to his having travelled through 
Europe with only one pair of shoes. Most of the authors of the day 
contributed their quota of ingenious ridicule, at the instigation, or for 
the amusement of Prince Henry, son of James I. Coryat introduced 
forks into England : his Travels in Europe, and his very curious sojourn 
in India, would have, probably, raised him in much higher estimation 
with his contemporaries than he appears to have enjoyed, but for the 
eccentricities of his pen and tongue : for as Ben Jonson writes, " He is a 
great and bold carpenter of words, or, to express him in one like his own, 
a Logodcedale. He is frequent at all sorts of free tables, where, though he 
might sit as a guest, he will be rather served in as a dish, and is loth to 
have anything of himself kept cold against the next day." 

Inigo Jones joined the throng of wits who made mirth of Coryat's 
Crudities. His contribution ends with an allusion to the benefit of clergy. 
This work who scorns to buy, or on it looke. 
May he at sessions crave, and want his booke ! 



ISO GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 



SCORPUS THE CHARIOTEER. 

lUe ego sum Scorpus, clamosi gloria Circi, 
PlausuSj Roma, tui, deliciseque breves : 

Invida quem Lachesis raptum trieteride nona, 
Dum numerat palmas, credidit esse senem. 

Erewhile I set the Circus in a roar, 

O Eome ! thy Favourite, and Delight no more. 

When envious Lachesis my triumphs told. 

Though only three times nine, she thought me old. 

The point or conceit in this Epigram has been often adopted in 
English poetry. Ben Jonson thus recounts the premature death of a 
youthful actor, one of those children of the royal chapel, whom Shakspere 
designates as " an aiery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top 
of the question, and are most tyrannically clapt for it." 

Years he numbered scarce thirteen, 

When fates turned cruel. 
Yet three filled Zodiacs had been 

The stage's jewel. 
And did act (what now we moan) 

Old men so duly. 
As, soothe, the Parcse thought him one, 

He played so truly. 

Suckling writes of a person in one year outliving Methusalem ; and 
Young, in his Night Thoughts, sings 

" Methusalems may die at twenty-one/' 

Lord Bacon observes, that "a man may be young in years, though old 
in hours." Habingdon, in an Elegy on a son of the Earl of Ayr, pushes 
the conceit to a greater length : 

'Tis false arithmetic to say thy breath 
Expir'd too soon, or irreligious death 
Profan'd thy holy youth ; for, if thy years 
Be numbered by thy virtues, or our tea,rs, 
Thou didst the old Methusalem outlive. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 131 

Dnimmond may be thought to have expressed all that is good in the 
idea, without the conceit of it : 

Fame, Registrar of Time ! 
Write in thy scroll, that I, 
Of wisdom lover, and sweet poesy. 
Was cropped in my prime, 
And ripe in worth, though green in years, did die. 

Some verses on the subject Passer in the Musce Anglicance, and several 
ingenious French Epigrams are founded on the same idea. 



LI. 

PARIS THE PANTOMIME. 

Quisquis Flaminiam teris, viator, 
Noli nobile prseterire marmor. 
Urbis deliciae, salesque Nili, 
Ars et gratia, lusus et voluptas, 
Romani decus, et dolor theatri, 
Atque omnes Veneres, Cupidinesque, 
Hoe sunt condita, quo Paris, sepulchro. 

Passing the Flaminian Way, 

Pass not this noble tomb, but stay : 

Here's Rome's delight, and Nile's salt treasure, 

Art, graces, sport, and sweetest pleasure ; 

The grief and glory of the stage, 

And all the Cupids of the age. 

And all the Venuses lie here. 

Interred in Paris' sepulchre. 

This Epitaph on Paris is closely imitated in that upon Voiture : 

Etruscse Veneres, Camcense Iberse ; 
Hermes Gallicus, et Latina Syi'en, 
Risus, Deliciae, Joci, Lepores, 
Et quidquid fuit elegantiarum, 
Quo Vecturius hoc jacent sepulchro. 

9—2 



132 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

It may be thought also to have furnished the point of an Epitaph on 
Moliere : 

Sous ce tombeau gissent Plaute et Terence ; 
Et cependant le seul Moliere y git. 
Leurs trois talens ne formoient qu'un esprit, 
Dont le bel art rejouissoit la France, 
lis sont partis, et j'ai peu d'esperance 
De les revoir, malgre tous nos efforts. 
Pour un long temps, selon toute apparence, 
Terence, et Plaute, et Moliere sont mors. 

MaruUus's Epitaph on Pope Innocent VIII. is manifestly a parody of 
that on Paris : 

Spurcities, gula, avaritia, atque ignavia deses 
Hoc, Octave, jacent, quo tegeris, tumulo. 

Filth, gluttony, avarice, indolence, all lie, O Innocent VIII., under the 
same tomb that covers you. 

Paris is the hero of Massinger's play of the Roman Actor. Domitian's 
speech after killing the Actor is at variance with Suetonius's account, 
that the Emperor had a pupil of Paris's put to death for resembling him : 
and that he had inflicted death on several persons who had strewn flowers 
on the spot where Paris fell. Massinger has also invented the manner of 
the Roman Actor's death, though following history in the occasion of it, 
the Emperor's jealousy in regard to his wife Domitia. 

There are various particulars concerning Paris in Suetonius's life of 
Domitian ; and he is mentioned in several Satires of Juvenal. It has 
been represented by some writers, that Juvenal was banished in conse- 
quence of the invective against Paris, contained in his seventh Satire ; he 
is stated by Juvenal to have relieved the pecuniary necessities of Statins, 
the author of the Thebaid, by purchasing from him a tragedy of his com- 
position : a relation which Dr Johnson has parodied in the lines in which 
he holds forth as prospects of literary merit " a patron and a jail." 



LII. 

LATINUS THE MIME. 

Dulce decus scense, ludorum fama, Latinus 
lUe ego sum ; plausus deliciaeque tua? : 

Qui spectatorem potui fecisse Catonem, 
Solvere qui Curios Fabrieiosque graves. 

Sed nihil a nostro sumpsit mea vita theatre, 
Et mira tantum scenieus arte feror. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 133 

Nee poteram gratus domino sine moribus esse : 

Interius mentes inspicit ille deus, 
Vos me laurigeri parasitum dicite Phoebi, 

Roma sui famulum dum sciat esse Jovis. 

Soul of the scene, unrivall'd in renown, 

I was th' applause, and darling of the town. 

I could command a Cato to attend ; 

A Curius, or Fabricius, to unbend. 

But, from the stage my life assum'd no part : 

A player did I play alone in art. 

Me Phoebus' parasite let all record, 

So Rome acclaim me minion of her Lord. 

Latinus was a celebrated player of Mimes, and also a spy of Domitian. 
The actors of Mimes did not wear masks, nor the cothurnus, nor the sock. 
Whereas the actors of pantomimes did not speak, and wore masks. Very 
strange instead was the custom for mimes to attend the funerals of 
the Romans, and to mimic the manners of the deceased ! Thus, at the 
funeral of the stingy Vespasian, Suetonius relates that Faevo, the Arch- 
mime, representing his person, and imitating his behaviour both in speech 
and gesture, asked aloud of the Procurators, " how much will my funeral 
pomp cost?" And, being answered, "ten millions of sesterces," he cried 
out, " Give me but a hundred thousand sesterces, and you may throw my 
body into the Tiber, if you will!" 

Suetonius mentions a circumstance which shews that Latinus had 
familiar access to Domitian, and is a curious example of that tyrant's 
enormous cruelty : 

" Nothing however so much affected him as an answer given him by 
Ascletario the astrologer, and a subsequent disaster. This person had 
been informed against, and did not deny his having spoken of some future 
events, of which, from the principles of his art, he confessed he had 
a fore-knowledge. Domitian asked him, what end he thought he should 
come to himself ? to which he replying, * I shall in a short time be torn to 
pieces by dogs,' he ordered him immediately to be slain, and, to demon- 
strate the vanity of his art, to be carefully burnt. But during the pre- 
parations for executing this order, it happened that the funeral pile was 
blown down by a sudden storm, and his body, half- burnt, was torn to 
pieces by dogs; which being observed by the mime Latinus, as he 
chanced to pass that way, he told it, amongst other occurrences of the 
day, to the emperor at supper." 

Martial (Lib. m. Ep. 86) tells a Roman matron, that after witnessing 
Latinus acting with Panniculus, it would be hypocrisy to have scruples 



134 GKMS OF LATIX POETEY. [Ch. 

about reading his book. In another place (Lib. i. Ep. 5) he begs the 
emperor to read his book in the same humour that he looks at Latinus 
when acting with his wife Thymele. In Lib. n. Ep. 72, ^lartial speaks of 
Latinus slapping Panniculus's face. Juvenal, Sat. 1. speaks of Latinus 
sending his wife Thymele to avert the displeasure of another Ddator. 

One of the most eloquent elegies written on an actress, is that by 
Voltaire, on Clairon, whom the " churlish priests'* would not aUow to be 
buried in consecrated ground : 

Que direz vous.. Race future I 
Lorsque vous apprendrez la fletrissante injure 
Qu'a ces arts desoles font des hommes cmels? 

lis privent de la sepulture 
CeUe qui dans la Grece aurait en des antels. 
Quand elle etoit an monde. Us soupiraient pour elle ; 
Je les ai vu soumis, autour d'elle empresses : 
Sitot qu'elle n'est plus elle est done criminelle ! 
Elle a charme le monde, et vous Ten punissez ! 
Non, ces bords desormais ne seront plus profanes : 
lis contieiment ta cendre : et ce triste tombeau 
Honore par nos chants, consacre par tes manes. 

Est pour notis un temple nouveau. 
Toila mon Saint-Denys : oui, c'est la que j'adore 
Tes talens. ton esprit, tes graces, tes appas : 
Je les aimai vivans ; Je les encense encore, 

Malgre les horreurs de trepas, 

!Malgre rerreur, et les ingrats 
Que seuls de ce tombeau I'opprobre deshonore. 



Lin. 

C^SAR AND PO^IPEY. 



Stimulos dedit gemiila virtus. 
Tu nova ne veteres obscurent acta triumphos 
Et yictis cedat piratica laiirea Gallis, 
Magne, times : te jam series ususque labormn 
Erigit, impatiensque loci fortuna secmidi. 
Xec quenquam jam ferre potest, Cfesarve priorem 
Pompeiusve parem. Quis justius induit arma 
Scire nefas : magno se judice quisque tuetur : 



n.] BIOGRAPHY- 135 

Victrix causa dels placuit, sed victa Catoni. 

Xec coiere pare? : alter vergentibus annis 
In senium, longoque tog-^e tranqiiillior usu 
Dedidicit jam pace clueem : famteque petitor 
Multa dare in viilgus : totus popularibus amris 
Impelli, plausuque sui gaudere theatri : 
Xec reparare novas vires, miiltumque priori 
Credere fortunis. Stat magni nominis umbra. 
Qualis frugifero quercus sublimis in agro 
Exuvias veteres populi, sacrataque gestans 
Dona ducum : nee jam validis radicibus h^erens,, 
Pondera fixa suo est : nudosque per aera ramos 
Effimdens,. trimeo, non frondibus efficit umbram : 
At quamvis primo nutet casura sub Euro, 
Tot eircum sylvs fii-mo se robore tollantj 
Sola tamen colitur. 

Sed non in Ctesare tantimi 
Nomen erat.. nee fama ducis : sed nescia virtus 
Stare loco : solusque pudor non ^dncere bello. 
Acer, et indomitus : quo spes, quoqiie ii'a vocasset. 
Ferre manum, et nunquam temerando parcere ferro. 
Successus urgere suos : in stare favori 
Numinis : irapellens quicqmd sibi summa petenti 
Obstaret : gaudeusque viam fecisse ruina. 

The rival leaders mortal war proclaim, ] 

Rage fires their soids with jealousy of fame, > 
And emulation fans the rising flame. ' 

Thee. Pompey, thy past deeds by turns infest, 
And jealous glory bm^ns within thy breast ; 
Thy fam'd piratic lam-el seems to fade, 
Beneath successfid Ctesar's rising shade ; 
His Gallic wreaths thou "siew'st with anxious eyes 
Above thy naval crowns triumphant rise. 
Thee, Ctesar, thy long labours past incite, 
Thy use of war, and custom of the fight ; 
TThile bold ambition prompts thee in the race, 
And bids thy coiu-age scorn a second place. 
Superior power, fierce faction's dearest care, 
One coidd not brook, and one disdained to share. 



136 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Justly to name the better cause were hard, 
While greatest names for either side deelar'd : 
Victorious Caesar by the gods was crown'd, 
The vanquish'd party was by Cato own'd. 
Nor came the rivals equal to the field ; 
One to increasing years began to yield. 
Old age came creeping in the peaceful gown, 
And civil functions weigh'd the soldier down ; 
Disus'd to arms, he turn'd him to the laws, 
And pleas'd himself with popular applause ; 
With gifts and liberal bounty sought for fame. 
And lov'd to hear the vulgar shout his name ; 
In his own theatre rejoiced to sit, 
Amidst the noisy praises of the pit. 
Careless of future ills that might betide, ) 
No aid he sought to prop his failing side, > 
But on his former fortune much relied. ) 
Still seem'd he to possess, and fill his place ; 
But stood the shadow of what once he was. 
So, in the field with Ceres' bounty spread, 
Uprears some ancient oak his reverend head ; 
Chaplets and sacred gifts his boughs adorn, 
And spoils of war by mighty heroes worn. 
But, the first vigour of his root now gone. 
He stands dependent on his weight alone ; 
All bare his naked branches are display'd. 
And with his leafless trunk he forms a shade ; 
Yet though the winds his ruin daily threat, 
As every blast would heave him from his seat ; 
Though thousand fairer trees the field supplies, 
That rich in youthful verdure round him rise ; 
Fix'd in his ancient state he yields to none. 
And wears the honours of the grove alone. 
But Caesar's greatness, and his strength, was more 
Than past renown and antiquated power ; 
'Twas not the fame of what he once had been, 
Or tales in old records and annals seen ; 
But 'twas a valoiu*, restless, unconfin'd. 
Which no success could sate, nor limits bind ; 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 137 

'Twas shame, a soldier's shame, untaught to yield, 
That blush'd for nothing but an ill-fought field ; 
Fierce in his hopes he was, nor knew to stay, 
Where vengeance or ambition led the way ; 
Still prodigal of war whene'er withstood. 
Nor spar'd to stain the guilty sword with blood ; 
Urging advantage, he improv'd all odds. 
And made the most of fortune and the gods ; 
Pleas'd to o'erturn whate''er withheld his prize, 
And saw the ruin with rejoicing eyes. 

Blair, iA his Belles Lettres, observes, that the characters which Lucan 
draws of Caesar and Pompey are "masterly," and the comparison of 
Pompey to the aged decaying oak is "highly poetical." The line in the 
character of Pompey, 

Victrix Causa Diis placuit, sed Victa Catoni, 

has exercised the wits of several of our poets, who have attempted, it may 
be thought unsuccessfully, to express it as sententiously in English, as in 
the original. Roscommon renders it thus : 

The gods were pleas'd to choose the conquering side ; 

But Cato thought he conquer'd when he died. 

Stepney's lines are, perhaps, better than those " owned by a lord : " 
The gods and Cato did in this divide, 
They chose the conquering, he the conquer'd side. 

Granville, Lord Lansdowne, in his poetical Essay on Translated Poetry, 
writes with reference to this memorable line : 

The Roman wit who impiously divides 
His Hero and his Gods to different sides, 
I would condemn, but that, in spite of sense, 
Th' admiring world still stands in his defence. 
How oft, alas ! the best of men in vain 
Contend for blessings which the worst obtain ! 
The Gods permitting traitors to succeed. 
Become not parties to an impious deed : 
And, by the Tyrant's murder we may find. 
That Cato and the Gods were of a mind. 

In a note upon this passage, his Lordship observes, 

" The consent of so many ages having established the reputation of this 
line, it may perhaps be presumption to attack it ; but it is not to be sup- 
posed that Cato, who is described to have been a man of rigid morals and 
strict devotion, more resembling the gods than men, would have chosen 



138 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

any party in opposition to those gods whom he professed to adore. The 
poet would give us to understand, that this hero was too righteous a 
person to accompany the divinities themselves in an unjust cause. But to 
represent a mortal man to be either wiser or juster than the Deity, may 
show the impiety of the writer, but add nothing to the merit of the hero : 
neither reason nor religion will allow it, and it is impossible for a corrupt 
being to be more excellent than a divine. Success implies permission, and 
not approbation ; to place the gods always on the thriving side, is to make 
them partakers of all successful wickedness : to judge right, we must wait 
for the conclusion of the action; the catastrophe will best decide on 
which side is Providence, and the violent death of Csesar acquits the gods 
from being companions of his usurpation, Lucan was a determined 
republican ; no wonder he was a free-thinker." 

The inference drawn by his Lordship, at the end of his remarks, is 
illiberal. Neither is Providence to be judged of, as he appears to insinu- 
ate, by any results in this world. The sentiment of Lucan is surely 
a noble one, that Cato was not led by interest or superstition to follow the 
successful party, though weaker-minded people inferred that success was 
owing to the favour of the gods : but he clung to the losing side, because 
he deemed it the side of justice, of liberty, and of enlightened religious 
duty. 



LIV. 

CATO. 

Hie nee horrificam sancto dimovit ab ore 
Caesariem, duroque admisit gaudia vultu : 
(Ut primum tolli feralia viderat arma, 
Intonsos rigidam in frontem descendere canos 
Passus erat, moestamque genis increscere barbam. 
Uni quippe vaeat studiisque odiisque carenti, 
Humanum lugere genus) nee foedera prisci 
Sunt tentata tori : justo quoque robur amori 
Eestitit. Hi mores, haec duri immota Catonis 
Secta fuit, servare modum, finemque tenere, 
Naturamque sequi, patriseque impendere vitam : 
Nee sibi, sed toti genitum se credere mundo. 
Huic epulse, vicisse famem : magnique penates, 
Submovisse hyemem tecto : pretiosaque vestis, 



IL] BIOGRAPHY. 139 

Hirtam membra super Romani more Quiritis 
Induxisse togam : Venerisque huic maximus usus, 
Progenies : Urbi pater est, Urbique maritus. 
Justitiae eultor, rigidi servator honesti : 
In commune bonus : nuUosque Catonis in actus 
Subrepsit, partemque tulit sibi nata voluptas. 

(For when he saw the fatal factions arm, 

The coming war, and Rome's impending harm ; 

Regardless quite of every other care, 

Unshorn he left his loose neglected hair ; 

Rude hung the hoary honours of his head, 

And a foul growth his mournful cheeks o'erspread. 

No stings of private hate his peace infest. 

Nor partial favour grew upon his breast : 

But, safe from prejudice, he kept his mind 

Free, and at leisure to lament mankind). 

Nor could his former love's returning fire, ] 

The warmth of one connubial wish inspire, [ 

But strongly he withstood the just desire. J 

These were the stricter manners of the man. 

And this the stubborn course in which they ran ; 

The golden mean unchanging to pursue. 

Constant to keep the purposed end in view ; 

Religiously to follow nature's laws. 

And die with transport in his country's cause. 

To think he was not for himself design' d. 

But born to be of use to all mankind. 

To him 'twas feasting, hunger to repress ; 

And home-spun garments were his costly dress : 

No marble pillars rear'd his roof on high, 

'Twas warm, and kept him from the winter sky : 

He sought no end of marriage, but increase. 

Nor wisVd a pleasure, but his country's peace : 

That took up all the tenderest parts of life. 

His country was his children and his wife. 

From justice's righteous lore he never swerv'd, 

But rigidly his honesty preserv'd. 

On universal good his thoughts were bent, 

Nor knew what gain, or self-affection meant ; 



140 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

And while his benefits the public share, 
Cato was always last in Cato's care. 

Cato's character, to which the sublimest homage was paid by Horace, 
even in the servile court of Augustus, is almost deified by the later 
Roman writers. But shortly after his death, it was severely attacked by 
Julius Caesar, in a work called Anticato, in answer to a panegyric upon 
Cato, by Cicero. The praises of Cato, after being reiterated by almost 
every Roman writer of genius who lived subsequent to him, acquired for 
Addison, among his contemporaries at least, a very high meed of fame ; 
both tories and whigs of his day laying claim to Cato as one of their party. 
Pope writes, " Cato was not so much the wonder of Rome in his days as he 
is of Britain in ours. The numerous and violent claps of the whig party on 
the one side of the theatre, were echoed back by the tories on the other. 
After all the applauses of the opposite faction, my Lord Bolingbroke sent 
for Booth into his box, and presented him with fifty guineas in acknow- 
ledgment, as he expressed it, for defending the cause of liberty so well 
against a Perpetual Dictator;" alluding to the Duke of Marlborough, who 
had been soliciting a patent to appoint him Captain- General for life. 



LV. 

EPICURUS. 



Humana ante oculos foede quom vita jaceret 
In terreis, oppressa gravi sub Keligione, 
Quae caput a coeli regionibus ostendebat, 
Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans ; 
Primum Graius Homo mortaleis tollere contra 
Est oculos ausus, primusque obsistere contra. 
Quern neque fama Deum, nee fulmina, nee minitanti 
Murmure compressit coelum ; sed eo magis aerem 
Irritat animi virtutem, efFringere ut arcta 
Naturae primus portarum claustra cupiret. 
Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra 
Processit longe flammantia moenia mundi ; 
Atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque. 

Long time men lay oppress'd with slavish fear ; 
Religion's tyranny did domineer, 



n.] BIOGRAPHY. 141 

And being plac'd in heav'n look'd proudly down, 

And frighted abject spirits with her frown. 

At length a mighty man of Greece began 

T' assert the nat'ral liberty of man 

By senseless terrors, and vain fancies led 

To slav'ry : straight the conquer'd phantom fled ! 

Not the fam'd stories of the Deity, 

Not all the thunder of the threat'ning sky, 

Could stop his rising soul ; through all He past 

The strongest bounds that pow'rful nature cast : 

His vigorous and active mind was hurl'd 

Beyond the flaming limits of this world, 

Into space infinite ; and there did see 

How things begin, what can, what cannot be. 

Dugald Stewart observes, that it is the image of mental energy bear- 
ing up against the terrors of overwhelming power, which gives so strong a 
poetical effect to the description of Epicurus in Lucretius, and also to the 
character of Satan as conceived by Milton. In these cases, Stewart 
thinks that the sublimity of energy is only a reflection from the sub- 
limity of power. 

Lucretius commences his third book with another eulogy on Epicurus, 
and in some lines in which he contemptuously declaims against the com- 
plaints of death by men whose whole lives have been of as little utility 
as if they had spent them in winding sheets, he observes, that even the 
great Epicurus was compelled to bow to the law of humanity. It is in 
speaking of him theie he uses the line which is adopted as an inscription 
on the statue of Newton, in Trinity College Chapel : " His genius sur- 
passed that of the human race, (Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit)." 
Lucretius passed also eloquent eulogiums on Ennius and Empedocles. In 
a poem, like that of Lucretius, containing 7416 lines, we are indebted to 
Creech for a synopsis of each book, especially as upwards of 7000 lines 
may be thought to consist of elaborate and exploded nonsense. But the 
Oasises of this desert, such as the exordium to Venus ; the View of the 
Tempest of Human Desires and Passions from the rock of philosophy, 
of which passage Lord Bacon has availed himself; the philosophical 
explanation of the fabled punishments of Tartarus, from the Greek 
orator, ^schines ; the Athenian Dirge ; the Lamentations of the Mother 
of the Sacrificed Heifer, and a few more brilliant or touching passages 
and lines, will, perhaps, be considered unrivalled in the whole range of 
ancient poetry. It is curious that a controversy exists concerning Cicero's 
opinion of Lucretius, arising out of discordancy of manuscripts, some 
inserting, others omitting, the word "not," in a letter of Cicero to his 



142 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

brother Quintus : " The poems of Lucretius, as you observe, are written 
(not) with much brightness of wit, yet, notwithstanding, with a great deal 
of art." Dugald Stewart remarks of Lucretius, that his subUmity depends 
on the lively images he presents of the attributes against which he 
reasons, and that he makes the sublimest descriptions of Almighty Power 
form a part of his argument against Divine Omnipotence. 



LVI. ^ 

] 

CATULLUS AT HIS BROTHER'S TOMB. 

Multas per gentes, et multa per sequora vectus, • 

Adveni has miseras, frater, ad inferias, j 

Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis, 1 

Et mutum nequidquam alloquerer cinerem : \ 

Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum : | 

Heu miser indigne frater ademte mihi ! j 

Nunc tamen interea prisco quaB more parentum ] 

Tradita sunt tristes munera ad inferias, ! 
Accipe, fraterno multum manantia fletu : 

Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave, atque vale ! i 



Brother, I come o'er many seas and lands 
To the sad rite which pious love ordains. 

To pay thee the last gift that death demands ; 
And oft, though vain, invoke thy mute remains : 

Since death has ravish'd half myself in thee, 

Oh wretched brother, sadly torn from me ! 

And now ere fate our souls shall re-unite. 
To give me back all it hath snatch'd away. 

Receive the gifts, our fathers' ancient rite 
To shades departed still was wont to pay ; 

Gifts wet with tears of heartfelt grief that tell, 

Thus ever, brother, bless thee, and farewell ! 

Catullus has lamented his Brother's death, in two other poems, ad- 
dressed to Hortalus, and Manlius, wherein his feelings on the subject are 



^\i 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 143 

expressed in verses than which there is nothing more touching in ancient 
poetry. It appears, from one of these poems, that his Brother's remains 
were interred at the Rhsetean Promontory, in the region of Troas. The 
undertaking a long journey by sea and land, for the purpose of perform- 
ing funeral rites over the ashes of a Brother, after, probably, the ordi- 
nary ceremonies at the pile and upon sepulture, had taken place, is an 
interesting transaction, and is related by the poet with simplicity and 
genuine feeling. The ordinary ceremonies at funerals are enumerated 
in charming poetry by TibuUus, in reference prospectively to his own 
obsequies. The minute details will be found in the Appendix to Bekker's 
Gallus. Round the funeral pile of the son of Regulus, the Delator, were 
slain all his pet animals, viz. little coach- and saddle-horses, dogs of various 
kinds, parrots, blackbirds, and nightingales. 



' LVII. } 

i 
CATULLUS AND CICERO. -i 

Disertissime Komuli nepotum ' 

Quot sunt, quotque fuere, Marce TuUi ! 

Quotque post aliis erunt in annis ; \ 

Gratias tibi maximas Catullus 

Agit, pessimus omnium poeta : ^ 

Tanto pessimus omnium poeta, ; 

Quanto tu optimus omnium patronus. ' 

Tully, most eloquent, most sage | 

Of all the Roman race, \ 

That deck the past or present age. 

Or future days may grace. ^ 

Oh ! may Catullus thus declare A 

An overflowing heart ; 
And, though the worst of Poets, dare 

A grateful lay impart ? i 

'Twill teach thee how thou hast surpast ; 

All others in thy line ; , 

For, far as he in his is last, j 

Art thou the first in thine. i 



144 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

These lines were thus imitated by Smart, after dining with Lord 
Mansfield : 

O thou of British orators the chief. 

That were, or are in being, or belief; 

All eminence and goodness as thou art. 

Accept the gratitude of poet Smart. 

The meanest of the tuneful train as far. 

As thou transcend'st the brightest at the bar. 

Catullus's letters to Julius Csesar are so far more revolting than the 
flowers of Billingsgate, that they are not inserted in this collection, (a 
modest version of them, very unlike the original, will be found in Lamb's 
Catullus, whence the version in the text is taken.) They are, however, 
remarkable as libels on Csesar in the height of his power, which the 
dictator did not resent. Cicero mentions that they were read to Csesar 
after his bath, and that he made no remark upon them whatever, nor 
changed countenance. The circumstance is mentioned in the 23rd No. of 
the Spectator, and Caesar's conduct is there compared with that of Cardi- 
nal Mazarine on a similar occasion. 

Niebuhr lays it down that " Catullus was the greatest poet Rome ever 
had." This insufferable dogmatism on a subject on which a dissent from 
the opinion of ages ought to be hazarded with the utmost deference, may 
appear as unfounded as it is coxcombical. In the same presumptuous and 
ridiculous vein he asserts that Virgil is a remarkable instance of a man 
mistaking his vocation, his real calling being lyric poetry : and that it never 
occurred to him to place Virgil among Roman poets of the first order, for 
that his most complete work, the ^neid, was a total failure. 



LVIII. 
YOUNG TORQUATUS. 

Torquatus, volo, parvulus 
Matris e gremio suae 
Porrigens teneras manus, 
Dulce rideat ad patrem 
Semihiante labello. 

And next to be completely blest, 
Soon may a young Torquatus rise, 



n.] BIOGRAPHY. 145 

Who, laughing on his mother's breast, 
To his known sire shall turn his eyes. 

Outstretch his infant arms the while, 
Half ope his little lips, and smile. 

The English verses are introduced by Sir W. Jones into an Epithala- 
mium, on the marriage of Lord Spenser. He pronounces the original, 
which he has imitated, a picture worthy the pencil of Domenichino. 



LIX. 

QUmTH^IAN AND MARTIAL. 

Quinctiliane, vagae moderator summe juventaB, 

Gloria Komanae, Quinctiliane, togae ; 
Vivere quod propero pauper, nee inutilis annis, 

Da veniam : properat vivere nemo satis. 
Differat hoc, patrios optat qui vincere census, 

Atriaque immodicis arctat imaginibus. 
Me focus, et nigros non indignantia fumos 

Tecta juvant, et fons vivus, et herba rudis. 
Sit mihi verna satur : sit non doctissima conjux : 

Sit nox cum somno : sit sine lite dies. 

O Thou, who rul'st with uncontrolled renown 

The wave of youth, thou glory of the gown ! 

That I, who boast not yet my wine or oil, 

Nor quite disabled by fell time to toil, 

Should haste (who makes sufficient haste ?) to live : 

Such oddity, my generous friend, forgive. 

This joy let him delay, who deems th' extent 

Penurious of his affluent father's rent ; 

Whose full sufficience answers not his calls. 

Who crowds v/ith ancient images his halls. 

Mine be the roof no envy can provoke : 

Warm'd by the fire, yet fearless of the smoke ; 

A fount of crystal gently bubbling by ; 

A bed of greens luxuriance to supply : 

A sated servant, not a learned wife ; 

Nights drown 'd with rest, and days unknown to strife. 

10 



146 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Martial has a small poem addressed to Juvenal of the Hke tenor. 
It does not appear that he and Statins, though they write on the same 
passing events, had any literary communication. It is not proposed, in 
the present volume, to examine into the philosophy of the Romans, or 
the details of their domestic life. For this reason, the opinions of 
Martial in these two pieces, and in another in which he gives a summary 
of his views of a Happy Life (Vita Beata, a subject on which Seneca and 
Lactantius have written books), are reserved for consideration on a future 
occasion. On such occasion it may be proper to discuss also the details 
of Martial's various invitations to Supper, and to compare them with what 
is to be found on the subject among the ancients, and in Ben Jonson, 
Milton, and Pope, among the moderns. But it may here be interesting 
to notice the particular terms in which Quintilian is addressed in the first 
two lines ; and, with regard to Martial's prayer, that he might not be 
allotted too learned a wife, to cite the opinion of Juvenal on the same 
subject : 

Odi 

Hanc ego, quse repetit volvitque Palsemonis artem, 

Servata semper lege, et ratione loquendi, 

Ignotosque mihi tenet antiquaria versus, 

Nee curanda viris Opicse castigat amicse 

Verba. Soloecismum liceat fecisse marito. 

For my part, I cannot endure a woman who is always poring over 
some book of Grammar ; who talks by rule, obeys laws of speech, and 
every now and then brings out some word which I never heard of before. 
She is constantly correcting the cacology of some country cousin. Surely 
a husband ought to have the right of committing a soloecism. 

Ancient writers give more favourable pictures of Roman Wives, and do 
not appear to have had the like horror of learned Wives. Statius's poem 
to his Wife, in his Silvse, which has been translated by Dr Hodgson, is 
one of his most engaging compositions. Ausonius has several interesting 
poems to or on his Wife. The following may be thought a pleasing 
specimen, founded on a wish of Martial, that a wife may not appear old 
even when she is so ; a thought which is beautifully expanded and illus- 
trated by Dugald Stewart, in his chapter on the Association of Ideas. 

Uxor, vivamus quod viximus, et teneamus 

Nomina quse prime sumpsimus in thalamo ! 
Nee ferat uUa Dies ut commutemur in sevo, 

Quin tibi sim juvenis, tuque puella mihi. 
Nectore sim quamvis provectior, semulaque annis 

Yincas Cumanam tu quoque Deiphoben. 
Non ignoremus quid sit matura senectus. 

Scire sevi incertum, non numerare, decet. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 147 

Pliny writes the following letters of and to his wife, Calphumia : 
" As you are an exemplary instance of tender regard to your family 
in general, and to your late excellent brother in particular, whose affec- 
tion you returned with an equal warmth of resentment ; and have not 
only shewn the kindness of an aunt, but supphed the loss of a tender 
parent to his daughter ; you will hear, I am well persuaded, with infinite 
pleasure, that she behaves worthy of her father, her grandfather, and 
yourself. She possesses an excellent understanding, together with a 
consummate prudence, and gives the strongest testimony of the purity of 
her heart by her fondness of me. Her affection to me has given her a 
turn to books ; and my compositions, which she takes a pleasure in 
reading, and even in getting by heart, are continually in her hands. How 
full of tender solicitude is she when I am entering upon any cause ? How 
kindly does she rejoice with me when it is over? While I am pleading, 
she places persons to inform her from time to time how I am heard, 
what applauses I receive, and what success attends the cause. When at 
any time I recite my works, she conceals herself behind some curtain, 
and with secret rapture enjoys my praises. She sings my verses to her 
lyre, with no other master but Love, the best instructor, for her guide. 
From these happy ch^cumstances I draw my most assured hopes, that the 
harmony between us will increase with our days, and be as lasting as our 
lives. For it is not my youth or my person, which time gradually im- 
pairs; it is my reputation and my glory of which she is enamoured. 
But what less could be expected from one who was trained by your 
hands, and formed by your instructions ; who was early familiarised 
under your roof with all that is worthy and amiable, and was first taught 
to conceive an affection for me, by the advantageous colours in which you 
^ were pleased to represent me ? And as you revered my mother with all 
the respect due even to a parent, so you kindly directed and encouraged 
my infancy, presaging of me from that early period all that my wife now 
fondly imagines I really am. Accept therefore of our mutual thpnks, that 
you have thus, as it were designedly, formed us for each other. Farewell." 

" You kindly tell me, my absence is greatly uneasy to you, and that 
your only consolation is in conversing with my works, instead of their 
author, which you frequently place by your side. How agreeable is it to 
me to know that you thus wish for my company, and support yourself 
under the want of it by these tender amusements ! In return, I entertain 
myself with reading over your letters again and again, and am continually 
taking them up as if I had just received them; but alas ! they only serve 
to make me more strongly regret your absence ; for how amiable must 
her conversation be, whose letters have so many charms ? Let me receive 
them, however, as often as possible, notwithstanding there is still a 
mixture of pain in the pleasure they afford me. Farewell." 



10—2 



148 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 



LX. 

COTTA. 

(who never knew a day's illness.) 

Sexagesima, Martiane, messis 
Acta est, et, puto, jam secunda Cottse ; 
Nee se tsedia leetiili calentis 
Expertum meminit die vel uno. 
Ostendit digitum, sed impudicum, 
Alconti, Dasioque, Symmachoque. 
At nostri bene computentur anni, 
Et, quantum tetricsB tulere febres, 
Aut languor gravis, aut mali dolores, 
A vita meliore separentur : 
Infantes sumus, et senes videmur. 
J^^tatem Priamique, Nestorisque 
Longam qui putat esse, Martiane, 
Multum decipiturque, falliturque. 
Non est vivere, sed valere, vita. 

Cotta has liv'd full sixty years and more, 
And yet (my Martian) never felt the sore 
Affliction of a fever one short bout : 
Thence, in derision, holds his finger out 
Against Alcantes, Dacus, Symmachus. 
But if our years were well computed thus : 
Take off the hours to pain and grief assigned, 
To fevers, and to agony of mind, 
And' separate them from each happier day ; 
We are but boys in years, and yet seem grey. 
He that conceives (my Martian) Priam's age, 
Or Nestor's to be long on the world's stage. 
Is much deceived, much out : For I thee tell, 
To be, is not call'd life, but to be well. 

One of the most beautiful gems in the Greek Anthology is a hymn to 
Health, of which a prose translation is given by Dr Johnson in the 
Rambler, No. 48. It has been frequently translated into English Poetry. 
The text furnishes a motto for that number of the Rambler^ and also 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 149 

for a paper by Steele in the Spectator, No. 143. Jeremy Taylor, in his 
Holy Living, has some important reflections on the religious uses of 
sickness, and the following letter of Pliny contains some valuable re- 
marks of a heathen on the same subject : 

" The lingering disorder of a friend of mine gave me occasion lately 
to reflect that we are never so virtuous as when opprest with sickness. 
Where is the man, who under the pain of any distemper, is either soli- 
cited by avarice or enflamed with lust ? At such a season he is neither 
a slave of love, nor the fool of ambition ; he looks with indifference upon 
the charms of wealth, and is contented with ever so small a portion of it, 
as being upon the point of leaving even that little. It is then that he 
recollects that there are Gods, and that he himself is but a man : no 
mortal is then the object of his envy, his admiration, or his contempt; 
and the reports of slander neither raise his attention, nor feed his curio- 
sity: his imagination is wholly employed upon baths and fountains. 
These are the subjects of his cares and wishes : while he resolves, if he 
should recover, to pass the remainder of his days in ease and tranquillity, 
that is, in innocence and happiness. I may therefore lay down to you 
and myself a short rule, which the philosophers have endeavoured to 
inculcate at the expence of many words, and even many volumes ; that 
'we should practise in health those resolutions we form in sickness.' 
Farewell." 

Erskine stated in the House of Lords, that during the twenty-seven 
years he practised at the Bar, he was on no occasion prevented from 
attending to his business in Court by indisposition. Pope, on the other 
hand, writes to Arbuthnot, 

Friend to my life ! (which, did not you prolong, 

The world had wanted many an idle song.) 
And again : 

The Muse but served to ease some friend, not wife, 

And help me through this long disease, my life. 

To second, Arbuthnot! thy art and care, 

And teach the being you preserv'd to bear. 
The version in the text is by Fletcher, a little modified. The terse- 
ness and neatness of the original almost defies imitation. There is one 
point in it which is not easily translatable, viz. that Cotta holds out a 
finger, as a patient might do, to the three physicians of most practice in 
Rome, but it is that finger, which among the Romans, was called the 
finger of contempt or derision. 



150 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

LXI. 

SABIDUS. 

(disliked, without knowing why.) 

Non amo te, Sabidi, nee possum dieere quare ; 
Hoe tantum possum dieere, non amo te. 

Je ne vous aime pas, Hylas, 
Je n'en saurois dire la eause, 
Je sais seulement une chose, 
C'est que je ne vous aime pas. 

Sheridan, in a parliamentary debate, is reported to have said, " These 
Gentlemen shew us no such acts ; they seem as if they considered the 
Ministers, now the drudgery of signing the treaty of Peace is done, as 
functi offi,cus, and as if they ought to go out ; as if one was a mere goose- 
quill, and the other a stick of sealing-wax, which are done with, and 
ought to be thrown under the table. We know that Touchstone says, 
as a good ground for quarrel, 'that he don*t like the cut of a certain 
courtier's beard.* Perhaps this capricious dislike cannot be better ex- 
emplified than by the sentiment expressed in the well-known epigram of 
Martial. The English parody may be more applicable to these Gentlemen: 
I do not like thee, Dr Fell, 
The reason why I cannot tell : 
But this, I'm sure, I know full well, 
I do not like thee, Dr Fell. 
"It is fair. Sir, to say, that this English parody, so unfavourable to the 
Doctor, proceeds from the mouth of a fair lady, who has privileges to like 
and dislike, which would ill become a Member of this House." 

Martial has another epigram on undefinable predilections and anti- 
pathies : 

DiflScilis, facilis ; jucundus, acerbus es, idem. 

Nee tecum possum vivere, nee sine te. 
In all thy humours, whether grave, or mellow, 
Thou 'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow. 
Hast so much wit, and mirth, and spleen about thee. 
There is no living with thee, nor without thee. 
There are two lines of Catullus which have been much admired, that 
are founded on the same kind of indescribable feelings, or causes of 
feeling : 

Odi, et amo. Quare id faciam fortasse requiris ? 

Nescio. Sed fieri sentio, et excrucior. 
I hate and love — ask why ? I can't explain ; 
I feel 'tis so, and feel it racking pain. 



IL] BIOGRAPHY. 151 

LamVs translation may be thought not to convey the entire spirit of 
the original, which it would be difficult to transfer into another language. 
The English reader cannot be expected to acquiesce in the high praises 
which the original has elicited. Fenelon writes, " Catulle, qu'on ne peut 
nommer sans avoir horreur de ses obscenites, est au comble de la perfec- 
tion pour une simplicite passionee;" then, after quoting the lines in the 
text, he continues, "Combien Ovide et Martial, avec leurs traits inge- 
nieux et fa9onnes, sent ils au dessous de ces paroles negligees, ou le coeur 
saisi parle seul dans une espece de desespoir," 



LXII. 

SULPICIA. 
(the model of " Grace " for Milton's Eve.) 

Illam quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia vertit, 
Gomponit furtim, subsequiturque decor, 

*' A concealed Grace fashions her every action, and 
closely attends on her every footstep." 

The following translations are to be found in the Appendix to Spence's 

If she but moves, or looks, her step, her face 
By stealth adopt unmeditated grace. 

Or, 
Whate'er she does, where'er she bends her course, 
Grace guides her steps and gives her beauty force. 

Or, 
Whate'er she does, where'er she moves, a Grace 
Slides in to give it form, and marks the trace. 

Or, 
A secret trace attends her charms inbred, 
Work in each action, in each footstep tread. 

Or, 
In every motion, action, look, and air, 
A secret grace attends, and forms the fair. 

Or, 
With every motion, every careless air, 
Grace steals along, and forms my lovely fair. 



152 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

The first of these poetic versions is by Horace Walpole, who writes, " I 
have translated the lines, and send them to you, but the expressive con- 
ciseness and beauty of the original made it so difiScult, that I beg they 
may be of no other use than of shewing you how readily I complied with 
your request." He adds, " There are twenty little literary variations that 
may be made, as move or look, air instead of step, steal and adopt instead 
of 63/ stealth adopt. But none of these changes will make the copy half so 
pretty as the original. "Was not Milton's paraphrase, ' Grace was in all her 
steps, &c.* even an improvement on the original ? It takes the thought, 
gives it a noble simplicity, and don't screw it up into so much prettiness." 
Perhaps Milton may be thought to imitate TibuUus more closely in the 
lines, 

Forth she went 

Not unattended, for on her as Queen 

A pomp of winning graces waited still. 

TibuUus* whole poem on Sulpicia's birthday, consisting only of twenty- 
four lines, is quite worthy of companionship with the two lines in the 
text. Perhaps the line, (Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet), 
" Thus Vertumnus, in Olympus, has a thousand ornaments ; a thousand 
which all become him," may be thought, at least as it is expressed in 
Latin, not inferior in neatness to those which have been cited. In pathos 
and tenderness, indeed, the poem is very far below TibuUus' first Elegy 
to Delia, as may perhaps appear from the following lines translated by 
Dr Hodgson: 

At my last hour thy features may I see. 
And hang with dying tenderness on thee ! 
Thoul't weep, my Delia, when thy lover lies 
On the black pile, where mournful flames arise. 
Thoul't shed the dew of pity o'er my bier. 
And mix with many a kiss the bursting tear. 
Yes, thou wilt weep, no iron heart is thine, 
But softness all. — 

And yet, good as this translation is, how very inadequately does the 
English in the second line express TibuUus* exquisite Te teneam moriens 
dejiciente manu ! 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 153 



LXIII. 

ZOILUS. 

(Unfavoukable Physiognomy.) 

Crine ruber, niger ore, brevis pede, lumine laesus, 
Kem magnam prsestas, Zoile, si bonus es. 

Ked-hair'd, black-faced, club-footed, and blear-eyed 
Zoilus, 'tis much if thou art good beside. 

Many celebrated persons have been remarkable for deformity. 
Among the ancients, Plato and Xenophon seem to have found amusement 
in ridiculing the flat nose, broad nostrils (more capacious, as they said, 
for taking in smells on all sides), and goggle eyes of their preceptor 
Socrates ; and Martial observes of a statue of that philosopher, that it 
might well pass for the statue of a satyr. In a Life of JEsop, by a monk 
in the 4th Century who collected the fables attributed to him, he is 
represented as a monster of ugliness ; but there is no authority for this 
popular modern opinion in ancient writers. The Athenians caused Ly- 
sippus to erect a statue to him (adverted to by Phsedrus in a passage 
quoted by Sir R. Walpole, in his memorable speech on the Peerage Bill), 
which may not appear an appropriate honour to a very deformed person. 
Both Tacitus and Suetonius remark the fiery visage of Domitian, of a 
dye so red, that the blush of guilt could never colour his cheek ; a pecu- 
liarity by which, it will be recollected, that Chancellor Jefferies was 
detected in a public-house, though he had shaven his eye-brows. And 
Pliny, in his panegyric on Trajan, has drawn a most graphic picture of 
Domitian, in which the redness of his face is a prominent feature. 
According to Plutarch, Cato the Censor was no beauty ; he had red hair, 
greenish gray eyes, which, with a stentorian voice ever prone to bitter in- 
vectives, gave occasion to a Greek Epigram to the effect, that Proserpine 
would object to his admission among the shades below. 

Lord Bacon wrote an Essay On Deformity, which is inferior to most 
of his Essays: though he makes some illiberal remarks on deformed 
people, he admits that "in a great wit deformity is an advantage to 
rising." Lord Byron felt the infirmity of his lameness a powerful stimulus 
to mental exertion in early life. Mrs Shelley, on the fly-leaf of her copy 
of Byron's drama. The Deformed Transformed, observes that a sense of 
his physical infirmity had an influence upon everything he wrote. In the 
play just mentioned Byron seems to have express reference to the cir- 
cumstance which he never forgot, of his mother having called him a de- 
formed brat : 

Bertha. Out, Hunchback. 

Arnold. I was born so, mother! 



154 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

An opinion of the connexion between ugliness or deformity, and moral 
depravity, has derived some force in this country from Shakspere's de- 
scription of Richard III. : (Lines which Gray thought " could not be put 
into the tongue of modern dramatics") : 

I, that am not shap'd for sportive tricks, 

Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass ; 

I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty 

To strut before a wanton ambling nymph ; 

I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion. 

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature. 

Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time 

Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, 

And that so lamely and unfashionable. 

That dogs bark at me as I halt by them. 
Sir T. More, in his History, states that Richard was little of stature, ill- 
featured of limbs, hard favoured of visage, with his left shoulder much 
higher than his right, and that he was brought into the world with his 
feet foremost, and toothed. The author of the Historic Doubts, who very 
properly urged the temptation for Lancastrian Historians to calumniate 
Richard, admits his inequality of shoulders ; a defect which he appears to 
have had in common with Alexander the Great : 

Ammon's great son one shoulder had too high. 

Atterbury called Pope's intellect "Mens curva in corpore curve;" but 
would, probably, have been the first to admit that this smart saying was 
only applicable to Pope in a very curved view of his genius. Pope was 
sensitive to any reflection by others of his own personal defects : but he 
took a share in that series of papers in the Spectator relating to the Ugly 
Club. In No. 108 of the Spectator, Pope thus describes himself under 
the appellation of Dick Distich : 

"Dick Distich by name, we have elected president : not only as he is 
the shortest of us all, but because he has entertained so just a sense of his 
stature, as to go generally in black, that he may appear yet less. Nay, 
to that perfection is he arrived, that he stoops as he walks. The figure 
of the man is odd enough ; he is a lively little creature, with long arms 
and legs ; a spider is no ill emblem of him ; he has been taken at a dis- 
tance for a small windmill. But, indeed, what principally moved us in 
his favour was his talent in poetry, for he hath promised to undertake a 
long work, in short verse, to celebrate the heroes of our size. He has 
entertained so great a respect for Statins, on the score of that line. 

Major in exiguo regnabat corpore virtus— 

A larger portion of heroic fire 

Did his small limbs and little breast inspire — 

that, he once designed to translate the whole Thebaid for the sake of little 
Tydeus." 



n.] BIOGRAPHY. 155 

May, in his History of the Parliament, notices that Lord Strafford at 
his impeachment excited by his eloquence universal sympathy among the 
female part of his audience, notwithstanding his personal appearance was 
unfavourable; and he quotes the example of Ulysses, as applicable to 
Strafford : 

Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulysses, 
Et tamen sequoreas torsit amore Deas. 

Madame de Sevigne said of Pehsson, " qu'il abusoit de la permission 
qu'ont les hommes d'etre laids." Cumberland relates that Soame Jenyns 
had been cast by nature in the exact mould of an ill-made pair of stiff 
stays ; he had a protuberant wen between one eye and his nose, and both 
his eyes were protruded like the eyes of a lobster who wears them at the 
end of his feelers. After mentioning peculiarities of dress, Cumberland 
adds, " Such was the man who was the charm of every circle, and gave a 
zest to every company into which he entered." In Warton's Essay on 
Pope (Epistle to Arbuthnot), various particulars are collected respecting 
the personal appearance of the Italian and English poets. Warton 
observes that many of the English poets have been remarkably hand- 
some. 

Scarron, who captivated Mademoiselle D'Aubigny, afterwards the 
celebrated Madame Maintenon, when she was at the age of sixteen, and 
whose attached wife she was for nine years, gives the following description 
of his own personal appearance : 

" Lecteur qui ne m'as jamais vu, et qui peut-etre ne s'en soucie guere, 
a cause qu'il n'y a pas beaucoup a profiter a la vue d'une personne faite 
comme moi, sache que je ne me soucierois pas aussi que tu me visses, si 
je n'avois appris que quelques beaux esprits factieux se rejouissent aux 
depens du miserable, et me depeignent d'une autre fa^on que je ne suis 
fait: les uns disent que je suis cul-de-jatte ; les autres, que je n'ai 
point de cuisses, et que Ton me met sur une table, dans un etui, ou 
je cause comme une pie borgne; et les autres, que mon chapeau tient 
a une corde qui passe dans une poulie, et que je le hausse et baisse 
pour saluer ceux qui me visitent. Je pense etre oblige en conscience 
de les empecher de mentir plus long-temps. J'ai trente ans passes : si 
je vais jusqu'a quarante, j'ajouterai bien des maux a ceux que j'ai deja 
soufferts depuis huit ou neuf ans. J'ai eu la taille bien faite, quoique 
petite ; ma maladie I'a racourcie d'un bon pied. Ma tete est un peu 
grosse pour ma taille. J'ai le visage assez plein pour avoir le corps 
decharne; des cheveux assez pour ne point porter perruque. J'en ai 
beaucoup de blancs en depit du proverbe. J'ai la vue assez bonne, quoi- 
que les yeux gros ; je les ai bleus : j'en ai un plus enfonce que I'autre, du 
cote que je penche la tete : j'ai le nez d'assez bonne prise. Mes dents 
autrefois perles quarrees sont de couleur de bois, et seront bientot de 
couleur d'ardoise ; j'en ai perdu une et demie du cote gauche, et deux et 
demie du cote droit, et deux un peu egrignees. Mes jambes et mes cuisses 



156 



GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. 



[Ch. 



ont fait premierement un angle obtus, et puis un angle egal, et enfin un 
aigu. Mes cuisses et mon corps en font un autre, et ma tete se penchant 
sur mon estomach, je ne rasemble pas mal a un Z. J'ai les bras racourcis 
aussi bien que les jambes, et les doigts aussi bien que les bras : enfin, je 
suis un raccourci de de la misere humaine. Voila a-peu-pres comme je 
suis fait. Puisque je suis en si beau chemin, je te vais apprendre quelque 
chose de mon humeur ; j'ai toujours ete un peu colere, un peu gourmand, 
et un peu paresseux. J'appelle souvent mon valet sot, et un peu apres, 
monsieur. Je ne hais personne, Dieu veuille qu'on me traite de meme. 
Je suis bien aise quand j'ai de I'argent, je serois encore plus aise si j'avois 
de la sante. Je me rejouis assez en compagnie; je suis assez content 
quand je suis seul, et je supporte mes maux assez patiemment." 

It is related that two ladies of the French court who had engaged in 
a most violent quarrel, were recommended to refer their differences to the 
Duke of Roquelaure. His Grace, before accepting the arbitration, en- 
quired if either of them had called the other ugly : upon being answered, 
" non," he replied, " Eh bien, je me charge de les reconcilier." 



LXIV. 



LIGURINUS THE TABLE-TALKER. 

Fugerit an mensas Phoebus, coenamque Thyestse, 

Ignore : fugimus nos, Ligurine, tuam. 
Ilia quidem lauta est, dapibusque instructa superbis : 

Sed nihil omnino, te reeitante, placet. 
Nolo mihi ponas rhombum, nuUumve bilibrem : 

Nee volo boletos, ostrea nolo : tace. 

I cannot say for certainty, whether the story be true of 
Apollo absconding from the table of Thyestes : but I am 
quite sure, O Ligurinus, we make ourselves scarce at yours. 
Yours is doubtless a sumptuous board, and its delicacies 
are of the most recherche description. — We however don't 
care so much for your turbot, or your mullet weighing two 
pounds, or your mushrooms, or your oysters, as we should 
care if you would give us a little less of your talk. 

The practice of recitations among the ancients, as it is to be collected 
from numerous letters of Pliny, from Martial, and from Catullus, is a 



n.} BIOGKAPHY. 157 

curious feature in literary history. Perhaps a Martial is not more wanted 
in the present day, for any reform of society, than to impose a partial 
silence on table-talkers. Let a man be somewhat superior to the general, 
either in rhetoric, or multifarious information, or ready or prepense wit, 
JEsop's lantern would be wanted to find such an one, who will not, when- 
ever he has opportunity, build up for himself a fancied colunm of fame 
at dinner-tables. Like Aaron's serpent, his talk will swaUow up that of 
every other guest, without his reflecting that it is diversity more than 
intensity, both in the substance of information and in the manner of im- 
parting it, which is the charm of colloquial conversation. He reads 
books, not for the purpose of digesting them, but of bringing them up. 
He rides every one's hobbies as well as his own to death, being particu- 
larly ambitious of a reputation for having, as the French say, une selle a 
chacque cJieval. Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas More, neither of whom 
were deficient in rhetoric, rather than talk overmuch themselves at their 
own tables, kept in their services an official character to fill up any 
vacuum in conversation : in modem society, the cap and its bells, and 
the bauble, have been transferred from the heads and hands of professed 
fools, to those of persons conspicuous for the ostentation of wisdom. It 
would indeed be a prudent precaution, if the practice among our continental 
neighbours of commencing dinner with eating oysters were generally 
adopted, provided their shells were available for an ostracism that might 
banish petty tyrants from the republic of the board. Such despotism 
no longer consists in arrogating the surname of " the just," but in claim- 
ing a monopoly for setting the table in a roar, or for transforming it, 
like harlequins, from its appropriate uses, into a lecture-room, or the pit 
of a theatre, or the gallery of a House of Commons. Learning, and wit, 
and flowers of speech, have their legitimate provinces at a dinner-table, 
but it is when their possessors unmistakingly exhibit that quality, which, 
as Horace intimates, is the true criterion of a Gentleman, yiz. parcentis 
virihus atque extenuantis eas consulto ; the purposely forbearing to put 
forth intellectual strength in hours dedicated not to listening, but to con- 
versing. We may, perhaps, conjecture that Prior's Lysander, who seems 
to have acquired the giji of the gab by reducing the society in which he 
mixed to the condition of monks of La Trappe, was a brilliant Table- 
Talker, but no Gentleman. 

Lysander talks extremely well; 
On any subject let him dwell, 

His tropes and figures will content ye : 
He should possess to all degrees, 
The art of talk he practises. 

Full fourteen hours in four and twenty. 



158 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

LXV. 

CANIUS THE LAUGHER. 

Die, Musa, quid agat Canius meus Rufus ? 
Utrumne chartis tradit ille victuris 
Legenda temporum acta Claiidianorum ? 
An quae Neroni falsus adstruit scriptor ? 
An semulatur improbi jocos Phsedri ? 
Lascivus elegis, an severus herois ? 
An in cothurnis horridus Sophocleis ? 
An otiosus in schola poetarum 
Lepore tinctos Attico sales narrat ? 
Hinc si recessit, porticum terit templi ; 
An spatia carpit lentus Argonautarum ? 
An delicatas sole rursus Europse 
Inter tepentes post meridiem buxos 
Sedet, ambulatve liber acribus euris ? 
Titine thermis, an lavatur Agrippse, 
An impudici balneo Tigillini? 
An rure Tulli fruitur, atque Lucani ? 
An Pollionis dulce eurrit ad Quartum ? 
An aestuantes jam profeetus ad Baias 
Piger Lucrino nauculatur in stagno ? 
Vis scire, quid agat Canius tuus ? ridet. 

Say, O Muse, what my friend Canius is about ? After 
suggesting a variety of occupations, such as various species 
of composition, and the solution of literary queries, reci- 
tations, walks in the Porticos, sitting under the shade 
on favourite public seats, bathing in popular public baths, 
enjoying the quiet and coolness of country villas, indulging 
in the warm springs of Baias, taking a sail on the Lucrine 
Lake, Martial observes that which of these pleasures he is 
taking may be uncertain, but one thing is certain, that 
Canius is laughing. 

In another epigram, Martial says, that it would not be so surprising 
that a person should turn a deaf ear to the Sirens in the midst of their 
song, as that any one should voluntarily leave a room in which Canius was 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 159 

telling a story. In a third epigram he compares Canius to the laughing 
statue of Pan. 

The details of Canius's supposed whereabouts, and his literary lucu- 
brations, afford matter for interesting inquiry. Several of the localities 
are illustrated, both as to their ancient and present condition, in Mr 
Whiteside's Vicissitudes of the Eternal City. For example, the grove of 
the Portico of Em'opa may be supposed to have occasioned the name of 
a Church which now stands on its site, called S. Salvatore in Lauro. 
The ancient and modern state of the Baths of Agrippa and Titus are 
also there reviewed. The Portico of the Temple was that annexed to the 
Temple of Isis. The Portico of the Argonauts was adorned with paint- 
ings of their fabulous history by Agrippa. Addison observes, that the 
Lucrine Lake is but a puddle in comparison of what it once was, its 
springs having been sunk in an earthquake, or stopped up by mountains 
which have fallen upon them. The controversy concerning the authen- 
ticity of writings attributed to Nero, is illustrated by Suetonius, who 
examined Nero's writing tables, on which were several of his poetical 
compositions, with interlineations, all in his own hand. This subject, 
among others. Martial conjectures that Canius would put in a ludicrous 
point of view. 

Catullus has an epigram on a laughing friend, Egnatius, who used to 
smile in the midst of the most pathetic discourses of orators, and even at 
funerals : but this was to exhibit his white teeth. Catullus tells him that 
if there is one thing more silly than another in the world, it is a silly 
laugh, (Risu inepto res ineptior nulla est.) Martial, adverting to Ovid's 
advice to a young lady, to " smile if she be wise," recommends a contrary 
system of tactics to an elderly lady, with teeth not quite unobjectionable, 
to " weep if she be wise." The motto, " Laugh if you be wise," (Ride si 
sapis,) has been adopted in The Guardian, No. xxix., in which the various 
species of laughers are enumerated, as Dimplers, Smilers, Grinners, Horse- 
laughers, and the various kinds of laugh, as the Sardonic, Ionic, Chian, and 
Syracusan. In The Spectator, No. 630, there is a notice of a " rattling pew'* 
occupied by laughers. Aristotle, in reference to comic writers, says, that 
the ridiculous consists in some fault or turpitude, not attended with great 
pain, and not destructive. Hobbes writes, that the passion of laughter is 
nothing else, but sudden glory, arising from comparison. Addison ob- 
serves, that, according to Hobbes's account, when we hear a man laugh 
excessively, instead of saying he is very merry, we ought to tell him he is 
very proud : he notices that beasts do not laugh ; it is a characteristic of 
human nature. Dr Beattie, in an elaborate Essay on Laughter, concludes 
that the " Quality in things, which makes them provoke that pleasing 
emotion or sentiment whereof laughter is the external sign, is an uncom- 
mon mixture of relation and contrariety, exhibited, or supposed to be 
imited in the same assemblage." Beattie excludes from his consideration 
unnatural, malevolent, and mere animal laughter, and confines his defi- 
nition to sentimental laughter. 



160 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

*Chrysippus, Philemon, and Zeuxis, are related to have died in fits of 
laughter, the last at one of his own jokes. Democritus has a reputation, 
like that of Canius, for taking a comical, though philosophical, view of 
human transactions, similar to that inscribed, with questionable propriety, 
on Gay's tomb, according to the following request : " I desire, my dear 
Mr Pope, whom I love as my own soul, if you survive me, as you certainly 
will, if a stone should mark the place of my grave, to see these words 
put upon it, with what else you may think proper : 
Life's a jest, and all things shew it, 
I thought so once, but now I know it." 

The following epitaph on Democritus has been applied to Rabelais: 
Accipe Democritum, Pluto, precor, una sit, ut quae 
Tot flentes inter rideat umbra tibi. 

O Pluton, Rabelais re9oy, 
Afin que toi qui es le Roy 
De ceux qui ne rient jamais, 
Tu ais un rieiu* desormais. 



LXVI. 

ACON AND LEONHiLA. 

(each beautiful, each one-eyed.) 

Lumine Aeon dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro, 
Et potis est forma vincere uterque deos. 

Blande puer, lumen quod habes concede sorori ; 
Sic tu csecus Amor, sic erit ilia Venus. 

Aeon his right, Leonilla her left eye 
Doth want ; yet each in form, the Gods out-vie. 
Lend her thine eye, sweet boy, and she shall prove 
The Queen of Beauty, thou the God of Love. 

The conceit in this epigram has enjoyed considerable popularity. It 
is said to have been composed in reference to Louis de Maguiron, a 
French Adonis, and favom-ite of Henry III. of France : he lost an eye at 
the siege of Isoire. The lady was the princess Eboli, who was equally 
singular for her beauty and one eye. To complete the figure of Poly- 
phemus, the Cyclops, as a model of ugliness, the poets gave him otie eye 
in the middle of his forehead. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 161 

LXVII. 
LAIS, (HER LOOKING-GLASS). 

Lais anus Veneri speculum dico ; dignum habeat se 

iEterna seternum forma ministerium. 
At mihi nullus in hoc usus, quia cernere talem 

Qualis sum, nolo ; qualis eram, nequeo. 

Venus ! take my votive glass ! 
Since I am not what I was. 
What from this day I shall be, 
Venus ! let me never see ! 

The original is in the Greek of Plato. The Latin is by Ausonius. It 
is matter of pride that Prior's version is so superior to that of Ausonius ; 
nor is the style that in which many English poets excel. Perhaps Waller 
is the only other English poet who has left us similar gems. 



LXVIII. 
GLAUCIA, (HIS PREMATURE DEATH). 

Non de plebe domus nee avarse verna catastrse, 

Sed domini sancto dignus amore puer. 
Munera cum posset nondum sentire patroni, 

Glaucia libertus jam Melioris erat. 
Moribus hoc formseque datum ; quis blandior illo ? 

Aut quis ApoUineo blandior ore fuit. 
Immodicis brevis est setas, et rara senectus, 

Quidquid amas, cupias non placuisse nimis. 

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy ! 
My sin was too much hope of thee, my boy ! 
Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay, 
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. 
O could I lose all father now ! for why 
Will man lament the state he should envy ? 

If 



162 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

To have so soon 'scap'd world's and flesh's rage ; 

And if no other misery, yet age. 

Eest in soft peace, and ask'd, say. Here doth lie 

Ben Jonson his best piece of poesy. 

For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such. 

As what he loves, may never like too much. 

Instead of a translation of Glaucia's epitaph, the reader is presented 
with Ben Jonson's epitaph on his first-born son. Martial's Composition 
is interesting only from the two remarkable lines with which it concludes, 
the last of which is imitated by Ben Jonson. 

The propriety of the sentiment expressed in the last line of Glaucia's 
epitaph was the subject of a literary controyersy between Pelisson and 
the Count de Bussi. Pelisson translates the passage thus, " Voulez vous 
etre heureux ? souhaitez en aimant, que ce que vous aimez ne soit pas 
trop aimable." The Count argued that it was impossible to love, without 
wishing the beloved object to be perfectly loveable. 

The last line but one of Martial's epitaph is applied to King Edward 
VI., by Cardan, in his memoirs relating to his royal pupil. He writes, 
" Alas ! how prophetically did he once repeat to me, Immodicis brevis 
est Estas, et rara senectus." This line is adopted by Cowley as a motto 
for his elegiac verses on his friend Harvey. The sentiment is commented 
on in Bayle's Diet., Art. Lucrece, where it is expressed, " Telle est la loix du 
ciel, nul exces n'est durable ; s'il passe le commun, il passe promptement." 
Marcellus, and Prince Henry, son of James I., by their extraordinary 
promise and early deaths, contributed to encourage this vulgar error, if 
it be such. Shakspere says : 

So wise, so young, they say do ne'er live long. 

Nevertheless, there have been remarkable exceptions to the fatality of 
early genius, Haller, who lived to the age of seventy, was considered a 
prodigy at thirteen. Mozart, indeed, died at the age of thirty-six, but not 
before he had established a lasting reputation: his musical genius was 
exhibited when he was four years old ; he composed a concerto when he 
was five, and by the time he was eight, he had excited the wonder of the 
principal courts of Europe. Bishop Monk, in his Life of Dr Bentley, 
relates several particulars concerning Wooton, who maintained a respect- 
able literary reputation, but not a very high one, after leaving college. 
He took his degree of A.B. at only thirteen years of age, when he 
was conversant with twelve languages. On his admission to Catharine 
Hall before the age of ten, the master of his college made a special entry 
in the college books : Gulielmus Wooton, infra decern annos, nee Ham- 
mondo nee Grotio secundus. "W. Wooton, under ten years of age, 
second neither to Hammond nor Grotius." Dr Johnson says of Pope, 
who " lisped in numbers," that, in the style of fiction, it might be related 
of him, as of Pindar, that, when he lay in the cradle, the bees swarmed 
about hi# mouth. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 163 

LXIX. 
LASCARIS. 

Lascaris in terra est aliena hie ipse sepultus, 
Nee nimis externum quod quereretur erat ; 

Quam placidam ille hospes reperat, sed deflet Achaeis 
Libera quod nee adhuc patria fundat humum. 

In a strange land here Lascaris remains, 
Nor yet that it was strange to him complains ; 
For it receiv'd him as an honoured guest, 
And with protection's kindest comforts blest. 
But sadly he deplores, that still a slave, 
6 His country to the Greeks denies a grave. 

Lascaris was the most noble in birth and profound in learning of all 
the Greeks who fled for refuge to Italy after the taking of Constanti- 
nople. He was one of the first restorers of Greek literature in Italy, and 
published the first Greek Grammar that was ever printed in Europe. 



LXX. 

AUGUSTUS. 



Ut ille victor orbis, et patris9 pater 
Confectus annis et dolore morbido, 
Augustus, horas jam supremas duceret ; 
Gravata ad auras vix levavit lumina, 
Circumque flentes, cuique protendens manum, 
Interrogavit voce soUicita suos ; 
" Ecquid putatis, partem ut aequus histrio 
Mimumque vitse me tulisse commode ? " 
Qui cum faventes " optime " una dicerent ; 
Haec ille " fiat : vos valete et plaudite !" 

When Augustus, the World's victor, and Father of his 
Country, was worn away by age and disease, and his last 

11—2 



164 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

hour was at hand, he raised, and scarcely was able to raise 
his eyes, and cast a look upon the friends who were weep- 
ing around him. — He stretched out his hand to each, and 
asked them if he had acted his part in life like a good 
Mime, with due regard to all the proprieties of the cha- 
racter assigned to him. — Every one present joined in an 
exclamation, that he had been an incomparable Actor. — 
Then said he — " Farewell all, and all applaud !" 

The expression, Vos valete et plaudite ! was the common conclusion to 
be found at the end of all Roman plays. It is quoted as such by Dr 
Pangloss, who finishes his part by saying, "Vos valete et plaudite! 
Terence, hem ! " Nero's last dying speech was an expression of regret, 
that so good a singer was about to be lost to the world. " Even in our 
ashes live our wonted fires," writes Gray, but not originally. It is related 
that the courtier- archbishop Fenelon said on his death-bed, " Si j'aurai 
I'honneur de voir Dieu, je ne manquerai gueres de lui recommander bien 
I'ame du Roi de France.'* This is much to the same efi'ect as the last words 
of Pope's courtier, "If — where I'm going — I could serve you. Sir!" 
The ruling passion or foible strong in death has not been more strikingly 
exemplified than in the lines on Narcissa : 

" Odious ! in woollen ! 'twould a saint provoke 
(Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke). 
No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace 
Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face. 
One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead — 
And — Betty — give this cheek a little red." 



LXXI. 

A GRAMMARIAN OF GHENT. 

Grammaticam scivi, multos docuique per annos, 
Declinare tamen non potui tumulum. 

I was skilled in Grammar, and taught it for many 
years ; nevertheless I was totally unable to decline the 
tomb. 



This Epitaph appears in Coryat's Crudities. The French have 
veyed much wit and satire, and ingenious turns of expression, thi 



con- 
ession, through 



I 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 165 

the medium of epitaphs. A few specimens may be thought enter- 
taining : 

Rousseau. 

Cy-git I'illustre et malheureux Rousseau ; 

Le Brabant fut sa tombe, et Paris son berceau; 

Voici I'abrege de sa vie, 

Qui fut trop longue de moitie. 

II fut trente ans digne d'envie, 

Et trente ans digne de pitie. 

PiRON. 

Ci-git Piron, que ne fut rien, 
Pas meme academicien. 

MONTMAUR 

(famous ahke for his good memory, and bad judgment). 
Sous cette casaque noir 
Repose bien doucement 
Montmaur d'heureuse memoire, 
Attendant le jugement. 

La Riviere, Bishop of Langres, 
(who left a hundred crowns for his epitaph : Prior left £500 for his 
monument, with an epitaph inclusive). 
Ci-git tres grande personage. 
Qui fut d'un illustre lineage, 
Qui posseda mille vertus, 
Qui ne trompa jamais, qui fut toujours fort sage : 
Je n'en dirai pas davantage, 
C'est trop mentir pour cent ecus. 

Ajv Abbe 
(who ruined himself by gambhng). 
Le bon Prelat qui git sous cette pierre 
Aima le jeu plus qu'homme de la terre. 
Quand il mourut il n'avoit pas un liard, 
Et comme perdre etoit cher lui coutume, 
S'il a gagne Paradis, on presume 
Que c'est un coup de hazard. 

Ablancourt 
(a translator of the Classics). 
Dans ses fameux ecrits toute la France admire 
Des Grecs et Remains les precieux tresors. 
A son trepas on ne pent dire 
Qui perd le plus, des vivans ou des morts. 



166 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

TURENE. 

Turene a son tombeau parmi ceux de nos rois, 
C'est le prix glorieux de ses fameux exploits. 
Louis vouloit ainsi signaler sa vaillance, 

Afin d'apprendre aux siecles a venir, 

Qu'il ne met point de difference 
Entre porter le sceptre, et le bien soutenir. 

Matjpertuis. 
Ce globe mal connu, qu'il a su mesurer, 
Devient un monument ou sa gloire se fonde. 
Son sort est de fixer la figure de monde, 
De lui plaire, et de I'eclairer. 

A rich collection of poetical Latin epitaphs in England (for even 
some humble and rustic families have still a pride, as they express it, in 
being buried in Latin), will be found in Hearne's Collection of Curious 
Discourses, especially in Numbers lxiv, lxxv, lxxvi, xcii; the last is 
by Camden. See also Weever's Funeral Monuments, and Daly's West- 
monasterium. 



LXXII. 

NICHOLAS. AN EGOTIST. 

Dicere Nicoleon non audeo : noverat unum 
Unus Nicholeos dicere Nicoleon. 

Ci-git Augustin Nicholas, 
Auteur de la premiere classe ; 
Keformateur de Vaugelas ; 
Eival de Virgile et Horace ; 
Castillan plus que n'etoit Garcillas ; 
Toscan plus que n'etoit Bocace ; 
Digne favori de Pallas ; 
Et grand dragoman du Parnasse ; 
Instruit des affaires d'etat, 
Au conseil et dans le senat 
II meritoit le rang supreme ; 

C'etoit un homme enfin " Hola ! 

De qui savez-vouz tout cela ? " 

De qui je le sais ? De lui-meme. 



IL] BIOGRAPHY. 167 

LXXIII. 

HOBSON. 

Complures (ita, Granta, refers) Hobsonus alebat 

In stabulo longo, qiios locitaret, equos ; 
Hae lege, ut foribus staret qui proximus, ille 

Susciperet primas, solus et ille, vices. 
Aut hunc, aut nullum — sua pars sit cuique laboris ; 

Aut hunc, aut nullum — sit sua cuique quies. 
Conditio obtinuit, nulli violanda togato ; 

Proximus hie foribus, proximus esto viae. 
Optio tam prudens cur non hue usque retenta est ? 

Tam bona cur unquam lex abolenda fuit ? 
Hobsoni veterem normam revocare memento ; 

Tuque iterum Hobsoni, Granta, -vddebis equos. 

It is a tradition at Cambridge, that Hobson kept a 
large number of horses in a long stable, and that it was 
the rule of his stable, that the horse which stood next the 
door should take the first turn of service — every horse 
must participate equally in labour, equally in rest. Gowns- 
men well knew the law; the horse next the door must be 
taken, or none at all. — Why should Hohson's Choice ever 
have been suffered to become obsolete ? — Eestore it, O 
Granta, if you consult your otvti interests ; for then in the 
place of modern Rozinantes your Cantabs will ride again 
Hobson's steeds. 

A particular account of Hobson and his choice will be found in The 
Spectator, No. 509, and in the notes to Todd's Milton. Hobson's Inn at 
London was the Bull Inn in Bishopsgate Street. He died on January i, 
1630, when the plague was raging in London, which prevented him from 
taking his usual jom-neys as a carrier and conveyer of letters between 
Cambridge and the Metropolis. Among Archbishop Sancroft's MSS. in 
the Bodleian, are some verses written by him on Hobson's death. Milton, 
who was a Cantab at the time Hobson died, wrote two punning epitaphs 
upon him, in which the following lines occur : 

Rest that gives all men life, gave him his death ; 
And too much breathing put him out of breath ; 



168 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Nor were it contradiction to affirm, 
Too long vacation hastened on his term. 
Ease was his chief disease, and to judge right. 
He died for heaviness that his cart went light. 
Here lieth one, who did most truly prove. 
That he could never die, while he could move. 
His letters are delivered all and gone, 
Only remains this superscription. 



LXXIV. 
FOX'S VALE TO ETON. 

Poscimur : at, nobis si rite precantibus olim 

Dixeris optatum, Musa, rogata melos. 
Nunc quoque et emerito praesens succurre poetse ; 

Dona ferens adeat sic tua fana cliens. 
Tuque, per Aoniis loca si celebrata Camenis 

Saepe tua erravi, Pegase, vectus ope, 
Decurso prope jam stadio, metamque sub ipsam, 

Ne lassa infami membra pudore trahas. 
Gentis amore Maro Latium canit : o mihi talis 

Spiritus accedat, (non minor urget amor) 
Ut patriae, (neque enim ingratus natalia rura 

Prseposui campis, mater Etona, tuis) 
Ut patriae carisque sodalibus, ut tibi dicam 

Anglice supremum Quinctiliane vale ! 
Si quid id est, veteres quod Musa imitata, Latinis 

Luserit aut Graiis, non aliena, modis, 
Omne tuum est ; mihi Pieridum de fonte sororum 

Pura ministeriis contigit unda tuis. 
Teque precor (levitas olim vesana fidelis 

Pespuit oblatam si monitoris opem, 
Acrior aut si me commorit lingua, meisve 

Moribus aut famsD virga ministra mese) 
Ne tot consumptos tecum feliciter annos 

Infelix animo deleat hora tuo. 
Care vale, valeas et mater Etona, supremum 

Musea recinit tristis alumnus ope. 



II.] BIOGRAPHY. 169 

Prataque, et aerio splendentes vertice turres, 
Silvaque carminibus concelebrata meis ; 

Vosque adeo indigense quae rivi in margine Mussb 
Castalias Thames! posthabuistis aquas, 

Extremum concede mihi, sacra turba, laborem ; 
Sic beet emeritum non inhonesta rudis. 



I am called. — But if ever, O Muse, before now, you 
have hearkened to my invocations, and inspired my lays, 
afford present aid to your Poet, whose occupation will so 
soon be gone ! And you, my Pegasus, as you have often 
transported me over classic regions consecrated to the 
Deities of Song, so do not now, when my race is almost 
run, when I am on the point of attaining its goal, disgrace 
me by your lassitude and tardiness. — Maro celebrates La- 
tium with a passion which argues his love of the place. 
O that I were equal with him in genius ; not even he can 
surpass me in affection ! I might then bid to my country 
(for my natal spot has not juster claims than Eton upon 
my gratitude), might bid to my dear Companions, might 
bid to thee, O Quintilian of England, a Parewell in unison 
with my own feelings, and worthy of the present occasion ! 
That I have been permitted to so close an intimacy with 
the Muses of Greece and Rome as to be enabled to imitate 
their sublime strains, that I have been allowed to taste the 
pure waters of the Castalian spring, is, my Quintilian, your 
entire gift. And, if my thoughtless levity has at times 
revolted at the proffered assistance of the kindest of Pre- 
ceptors ; if I have occasionally merited your just censure, 
or if to preserve my morals, and prevent the blasting of 
my future fame, you have outstretched the hand of Cor- 
rection, O let not my inconsiderate conduct obliterate in 
your mind all memory of one who has passed so many 
happy years under your tutelage. Dear Preceptor, fare- 
well ! Farewell, Alma Mater Eton ! Farewell to your sur- 
rounding meadows, and your crowning and antique towers, 
and your groves which have so often been the burden of 
my lays. And you, O Muses, who haunt those neighbour- 
ing banks of the Thames, in preference even to the foun- 



170 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. II. 

tains of Castalia, smile, O Sacred Band, on this the last of 
my wonted labours. Thus, O thus, like as among the 
Eomans a gladiator who had earned the favour of the 
public, was presented with a wand, as a token that he 
might quit the arena for ever amidst the applauses of the 
audience, so may I exchange the occupations of my boy- 
hood for the duties of a man, with the consciousness of 
having passed at least one period of my life with approba- 
tion and honour. 



CHAPTER III. 
PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 



VENICE. 

Vide RAT Hadriacis Yenetam Neptunus in undis 

Stare urbem, et toti ponere jura mari. 
Nunc mihi Tarpeias quantum vis, Jupiter, arees 

Objice, et ilia tui moenia Martis, ait. 
Sic pelago Tibrim praefers, urbem Aspice utramque, 

Blam homines dices, hunc posuisse Deos. 

When Neptune saw in Adrian's surges stand 
Venice, and give the Sea laws of command : 
Now Jove, said he, object thy Capitol 
And Mars' proud walls : This were for to extol 
Tyber beyond the Main : Both towns behold, 
Rome Men, thou'lt say, Venice the Gods did mould. 

Coryat, in his Crudities, transcribes several curious pieces of Latin 
poetry concerning Venice, and he mentions, that the Venetian Senate 
conferred on Sannazarius a hundred crowns for each of the above six 
verses : he adds, " I would to God, my poetical friend, Mr Benjamin 
Jonson, were so well rewarded for his poems here in England, seeing he 
hath made many as good verses (in my opinion) as these of Sannazarius." 
Howell, (from whom the version in the text is taken,) in his interesting 
letters, writes that Sannazarius had 100 zechins for every line, and that 
the sum amounted to about j£300. The igeader will probably think them 
overpaid, and will be glad to turn from them to the more poetical de- 
scription of Venice by Byron : 

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs : 
A palace and a prison on each hand : 
I saw from out the wave her structures rise 
As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand : 



172 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

A thousand years their cloudy wings expand 
Around me, and a dying glory smiles 
O'er the far times, when many a subject land 
Look'd to the winged lion's marbled piles, 
Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles ! 

She looks a sea Oybele, fresh from ocean, 
Rising with her tiara of proud towers 
At airy distance, with majestic motion, 
A ruler of the waters and their powers : 
And such she was ; — her daughters had their dowers 
From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East 
Pour'd in her lap all gems in sparkling showers. 
In pui'ple was she robed, and of her feast 
Monarchs partook, and deem'd their dignity increased. 

In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more. 
And silent rows the songless gondolier ; 
Her palaces are crumbling to the shore. 
And music meets not always now the ear : 
Those days are gone — but Beauty still is here. 
States fall, arts fade — but Nature doth not die, 
Nor yet forget how Venice once was dear, 
The pleasant place of all festivity. 
The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy ! 

But unto us she hath a spell beyond 
Her name in story, and her long array 
Of mighty shadows, whose dim forms respond 
Above the dogeless city's vanish'd sway; 
Ours is a trophy which will not decay 
With the Rialto ; Shylock and the Moor, 
And Pierre, cannot be swept or worn away — 
The keystones of the arch ! though all were o'er. 
For us repeopled were the solitary shore. 

The following description is by Rogers : 

There is a glorious City in the Sea. 

The Sea is in the broad, the narrow streets, 

Ebbing and flowing; and the salt sea- weed 

Clings to the marble* of her palaces. 

No track of men, no foot-steps to and fro. 

Lead to her gates. The path lies o'er the Sea, 

Invisible ; and from the land we went, 

As to a floating City — steering in. 

And gliding up her streets as in a dream. 

So smoothly, silently — by many a dome 



in.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 173 

Mosque-like, and many a stately portico, 

The statues ranged along an azure sky ; 

By many a pile in more than Eastern splendour. 

Of old the residence of merchant-kings ; 

The fronts of some, though Time had shattered them. 

Still glowing with the richest hues of art, 

As though the wealth within them had run o'er. 



II. 

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 

O Tu, severi Eeligio loci, 
Quocunque gaudes nomine (non leve 
Nativa nam certe fluenta 

Numen habet, veteresque sylvas 

Praesentiorem et conspicimus Deum 
Per invias rupes, fera per juga, 
Clivosque praeruptos, sonantes 

Inter aquas, nemorumque noctem ; 

Quam si repostus sub trabe citrea 
Fulgeret auro, et Phidiaea manu,) 
Salve vocanti rite, fesso et 
Da placidam juveni quietem. 

Quod si invidendis sedibus, et frui 
Portuna sacra lege silentii 

Vetat volentem, me resorbens 
In medios violenta fluctus : 

Saltem remoto des. Pater, angulo 
Horas senectse ducere liberas ; 
Tutumque vulgari tumultu ; 
Surripias, hominumque curis. 

O thou ! the Genius of this awful spot. 
How shall I fitly name thee ? for I deem 

Less than a Godhead's presence haunteth not 
This antique forest, and this native stream ; 



174 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

And we behold more near the visible God 

Midst these shagg'd cliffs, these rude hill-solitudes, 

These rocks, which foot of man hath never trod, 
This dash of waters, and this night of woods. 

Than if beneath a citron arch he shone, 

Fashion'd in molten gold by Phidias' hand — 

Hail ! — if invoked aright, look gracious on ! 

Here let my wearied youth glide calm to land. 

Or should hard Fate'^s rebuff, e'en while I yearn 
For these endear'd retreats, this holy reign 

Of silence, with the reflux swell return 
Me to the tossing midmost waves again : 

Sire ! (shall I call thee ?) be the boon allow'd 
To share thy freedom in my drooping age ; 

Then steal me from the cares that vex the crowd, 
And safe receive me from their restless rage. 

Gray, in one of his highly interesting letters to West, gives the follow- 
ing description of his journey to the Grande Chartreuse : 

" In our little journey up to the Grande Chartreuse, I do not remem- 
ber to have gone ten paces without an exclamation, that there was no 
restraining : not a precipice, not a torrent, not a cliff, but is pregnant with 
religion and poetry. There are certain scenes that would awe an atheist 
into belief, without the help of other argument. One need not have a 
very fantastic imagination to see spirits there at noon-day; you have 
Death perpetually before your eyes, only so far removed, as to compose 
the mind without frighting it. I am well persuaded St Bruno was a man 
of no common genius, to choose such a situation for his retirement ; and 
perhaps should have been a disciple of his, had I been born in his time." 

In a letter to his mother, Gray writes : 

" We took the longest road, which lies through Savoy, on purpose to 
see a famous monastery, called the Grande Chartreuse, and had no reason 
to think our time lost. After having travelled seven days very slow, (for 
we did not change horses, it being impossible for a chaise to go post in 
these roads) we arrived at a little village, among the mountains of Savoy, 
called Echelles ; from thence we proceeded on horses, who are used to 
the way, to the mountain of the Chartreuse : it is six miles to the top ; the 
road runs winding up it, commonly not six feet broad ; on one hand is the 
rock, with woods of pine-trees hanging over head ; on the other, a mon- 
strous precipice, almost perpendicular, at the bottom of which rolls a 



in.] PLACES AND NATUKAL PHENOMENA. 175 

torrent, that sometimes tumbling among the fragments of stone that have 
fallen from on high, and sometimes precipitating itself down vast descents 
with a noise like thunder, which is still made greater by the echo from the 
mountains on each side, concurs to form one of the most solemn, the 
most romantic, and the most astonishing scenes I ever beheld : add to 
this the strange views made by the craggs and cliffs on the other hand ; 
the cascades that in many places throw themselves from the very summit 
down into the vale, and the river below ; and many other particulars im- 
possible to describe ; you will conclude we had no occasion to repent our 
pains. This place St Bruno chose to retire to, and upon its very top 
founded the aforesaid convent, which is the superior of the whole order. 
When we came there, the two fathers, who are commissioned to entertain 
strangers, (for the rest must neither speak one to another, nor to any one 
else) received us very kindly ; and set before us a repast of dried fish, 
eggs, butter and fruits, all excellent in their kind, and extremely neat. 
They pressed us to spend the night there, and to stay some days with 
them ; but this we could not do, so they led us about their house, which is, 
you must think, like a little city; for there are 100 fathers, besides 300 
servants, that make their clothes, grind their com, press their wine, and 
do eveiy thing among themselves. The whole is quite orderly and 
simple; nothing of finery; but the wonderful decency, and the strange 
situation, more than supply the place of it. In the evening we descended 
by the same way, passing through many clouds that were then forming 
themselves on the mountain's side." 

Dugald Stewart observes, that the sublime effect of rocks and cata- 
racts, of huge ridges of mountains, of vast and gloomy forests, of immense 
and impetuous rivers, of the boundless ocean, and, in general, every thing 
which forces on the attention the idea of Creative Power, is owing, in part, 
to the irresistible tendency which that idea has to raise the thoughts 
towards heaven. The influence of some of these spectacles in awakening 
religious impressions, is nobly exemplified in Gray's Ode, written at the 
Grande Chartreuse; an Alpine scene of the wildest and most awful 
grandeur, where every thing appears fresh from the hand of Omnipo- 
tence, inspiring a sense of the more immediate presence of the Divinity. 



176 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

III. 
SIRMIO. 

Pceninsularum, Sirmio, insularumque 
Ocelle, quascumque in liquentibus stagnis 
Marique vasto fert uterque Neptunus ! 
Quam te libenter, quamque Isetus, inviso ! 
Vix mi ipse credens, Thyniam atque Bithynos 
Liquisse campos, et videre te in tuto, 
O ! quid solutis est beatius curis ? 
Cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrine 
Labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum, 
Desideratoque aequieseimus lecto ; 
Hoc est, quod unum est pro laboribus tantis. 
Salve, o Venusta Sirmio ! atque hero gaude : 
Gaudete vosque, LydisB lacus undsB : 
Eidete, quidquid est domi cachinnorum. 

Sweet Sirmio I thou, the very eye 

Of all peninsulas and isles 
That in our lakes of silver lie, 

Or sleep, enwreathed by Neptune's smiles — 

How gladly back to thee I fly : 

Still doubting, asking — Can it be 
That I have left Bithynia's sky, 

And gaze in safety upon thee ? 

Oh ! what is happier than to find 

Our hearts at ease, our perils past. 
When, anxious long the lighten'd mind 

Lays down its load of care at last : 



• 



When, tired with toil o'er land and deep, 
Again we tread the welcome floor 

Of our own home, and sink to sleep 
On the long-wish'd-for bed once more. 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 177 

This, this it is that pays alone 

The ills of all life's former track. — 
Shine out, my beautiful, my own 

Sweet Sirmio, greet thy master back ! 

And thou, fair Lake, whose waters quaff 
The light of heaven like Lydia's sea, 

Rejoice, rejoice — let all that laughs 
Abroad, at home, laugh out for me ! 

The version is by Moore. The piece has been translated by several 
hands. It is quoted by Gray in a letter to West. 

The Peninsula of Sirmio projects into the Lago di Garda or Benaco, 
and is two miles in circumference. The vestiges of Catullus's villa are 
still shewn there. Close by its side there is a precipitous fall of the 
ground, which is supplied by rows of vaults placed over each other. On 
the summit was a spacious terrace, commanding a view of the lake. Part of 
the ruins of this terrace, and of a portico which was erected on it, are still 
to be seen. Behind the villa, the promontory rose into a hill covered 
with ohves. The views from Catullus's Villa are described by Eustace as 
delightfully varied. The shores of the lake are sometimes shelving in 
gentle declivity, at others breaking in craggy magnificence; the sight 
resting at one time on cultivated scenery, and, at another, bewildered and 
lost in the windings of the lake, and the recesses of the Alps. The lake 
Benaco is thirty-five miles in length, and twelve in breadth. It has 
waters of the finest sea-green. It is described by Virgil as it was excited 
by a storm ; and Addison saw it in that state, when he represents it as 
exhibiting all the grandeur and agitation of the ocean. Benacus is the 
subject of the most celebrated of Bembo's Latin poems. 

In the year 1797, Buonaparte, when commander-in-chief of the army 
of Italy, visited Sirmio, on his journey from Milan, to conclude the treaty 
of Campo Formio, turniDg out of his direct route for the purpose. He 
gave a Fete Champetre in honour of Catullus. Annelh, a famous Impro- 
visatori, paid on the occasion poetical tributes to the memory of the 
Bard of Sirmio. And, out of respect for Catullus, the town of Sirmio 
was reUeved from a detachment of soldiers which had been quartered 
upon it. 

The poet Frascatoro in lamenting the untimely death of a poetic 
friend, who died at Sirmio, represents the shade of Catullus as nightly 
wandering amidst the scenes of his once favourite peninsula. Among 
the works of the modern Latin poets of Italy, there are many pleasing 
addresses to their villas, composed in imitation of Catullus's Ode to 
Sirmio. No other poem of antiquity can, perhaps, be indicated which 
contains such an agreeable description of home feelings. 

In England we have a very well-known popular song of "Home, 

12 



178 OEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

sweet Home ! " And we have a very interesting school-boy Latin poem, 
called Dulce Domum, said to have been composed, about a hundred and 
fifty years ago, by a Winchester scholar, who, for some offence, was forbid 
by his master from going home at the Whitsuntide holydays. A translation 
of the poem first appeared in The Gentleman* s Magazine for March 1796. 
The whole poem and translation will be found in Hone's Every-Day Book. 
The two concluding stanzas may possibly excite curiosity to search for 
the rest. 

Heus ! Rogere, fer caballos ; 

Eia, nunc eamus! 
Limen amabile, 
Matris et oscula, 

Suaviter et repetamus. 

Domum, domum, dulce domum. 

Concinamus ad Penates, 

Vox et audiatur; 
Phosphore ! quid jubar, 
Signius emicans, 

Gaudia nostra moratur. 

Domum, domum, dulce domum. 

Let our men and steeds assemble, 

Panting for the wide champaign, 
Let the ground beneath us tremble. 

While we scour along the plain. 

O what raptures, O what blisses. 

When we gain the lovely gate ! 
Mother's arms, and mother's kisses, 

There, our bless'd arrival wait. 

Greet our household Gods with singing ! 

Lend, Lucifer ! thy ray ; 
Why should light, so slowly springing, 

All our promised joys delay ? 

The translation wants the simplicity, and the practical turn of the 
original. — Hollo! Roger, bring the ponies! quick, let us scamper off! 
Our jolly homes, our Mothers' kisses! Sha'n't we sing, "Home, sweet 
Home!" Let us cheer loud, that our voices may reach to the governor's 
ears ! Sun ! sun ! how slow you are rising ! Why don't you come, and 
put an end to this delay of jolliness ? Hark ! We all call for you with the 
song of " Home, sweet Home!" 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 17.9 

IV. 

VESUVIUS. 

Hie est pampineis viridis modo Vesvius umbris : 

Presserat hie madidos nobilis uva laeus. 
Hsec juga, quam Nysas eolles, plus Bacchus amavit : 

Hoc nuper Satyri monte dedere choros. 
Hsec veneris sedes, Lacedsemone gratior illi : 

Hie locus Herculeo nomine clarus erat. 
Cuncta jacent flammis, et tristi mersa favilla : 

Nee Superi vellent hoc licuisse sibi. 

Vesuvio, cover'd with the fruitful vine, 

Here flourish'd once, and ran with floods of Wine ; 

Here Bacchus oft to the cool shades retir'd, 

And his own native Nisa less admir'd : 

Oft to the mountain's airy tops advanced, 

The frisking Satyrs on the summits danc'd; 

Alcides here, here Venus grac'd the shore, 

Nor lov'd her fav'rite Lacedsemon more. 

Now piles of ashes spreading all around. 

In undistinguish'd heaps deform the ground, 

The Gods themselves the ruin'd seats bemoan. 

And blame the mischiefs that themselves have done. 

The version is by Addison : he does not seem to have apprehended 
the point in the last line, which appears to have reference to the memo- 
rable and then recent saying of Nero concerning the extent of his power 
{quantum sibi liceret), refen-ed to in the previous illustrations of the epi- 
gram on Lucan. Picturesque descriptions of Vesuvius and of the Bay of 
Naples are given by Addison and Eustace, and by Statins in his interest- 
ing invitation of his wife to Naples ; a poem of upwards of a hundred 
verses, which has been translated into harmonious English verse by 
Dr Hodgson, provost of Eton : these lines occur : 

Thy rage, Vesuvius, and thy streams that flow 

In flaming horror o'er a waste of snow, 

Drive not my daring countrymen away, 

Their crowded cities still oppose his sway. 

Here spread majestic o'er the busy coast 

The world's great port, ItaUa's proudest boast : 

12—2 



180 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Here many a lofty tow'r, and glittering dome, 
The work, the care of heav'n, thy rivals, Rome ! 
I call thee, Claudia ! to this balmy shore ! 
Yes, thou wilt come with voluntary haste. 
And thus anticipate the wish I waste. 
Absent from me, before my Claudia's eyes, 
Rome will in vain spread out her luxuries. 
A mournful desert will the city seem, 
And royal Tiber roll a sordid stream. 

Tacitus, in describing the island of Caprese with reference to the 
memorable retirement there of the Emperor Tiberius, observes that the 
view of the Bay of Naples, as seen from the island, had lost much of its 
beauty, in consequence of the fiery eruptions of Mount Vesuvius having, 
between the time of Tiberius and the date of his Annals, changed the 
aspect of the scenery. Addison notices that Martial's epigram is an inte- 
resting commentary on Tacitus. And he observes that the view of the 
Bay of Naples, when Tacitus wrote, must have been more striking than 
at present, in consequence of its being anciently encompassed with so long 
a range of buildings, as to appear to those who looked at it from a dis- 
tance, but as one continued city. Virgil wrote his Georgics principally at 
Naples, and has occasionally taken its scenery from its beautiful bay. 

The first eruption of Vesuvius, which is remarkable in history, is that 
which is the subject of the epigram in the text. It occurred a. d. 79, in 
the first year of the reign of the Emperor Titus, and it destroyed the 
cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii : the first of these Cities of the Dead 
was discovered a.d. 1713, and the latter about ten years afterwards, the 
former from seventy to one hundred and twelve, the latter from ten to 
twelve feet, under the surface of the ground. The number of recorded 
eruptions prior to that of a.d. 1794, is said to have been thirty. The erup- 
tions of -^tna acquired classical celebrity from Pindar and ^schylus. 
Virgil has sung of them. The Marquis of Wellesley, in a Latin poem, 
has given an animated description of an eruption of .^tna, in which the 
following lines occur : 

Atra ruit vastse nubes prsesaga ruinse, 

Tartareo ad superum vortice missa polum. 
Jam tempestates cinerum, terrseque tremoris 

Flammarumque inter saxa voluta globes, 
Totaque sulphurds suffecta vaporibus aura, 

Fulguraque, et subita condita nocte dies. 
Atque alta ^tneis suspiria tracta cavernis, 

Ceu mens ex imo lugeat ipse sinu, 
Dant signum — liquidusque ignis, Phlegethontis imago, 

Torrenti effervens flumine inundat agros : 
Per nemora, et vites, per pulchra palatia, et hortos, 

Involvens humili templa, domosque cas^. 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 181 

Ad mare diluvio ardenti, et flagrantibus imdis. 
Cum luctu, et laci'ymis, et nece, rastat iter. 

Jungitur ignis aquse; et stridens durescit eundo ; 
Objicit et pulso saxea claustra marl, 

Fit pelagi rupes. 

This description (according to an mipublished copy of the Marquis of 
Wellesle/s Latin poetry) is taken from Brydone's Tour in Sicily , Vol. i. 
p. 175, which describes more particularly the great eruption, a.d. 1669, 
that destroyed the possessions of near 30,000 people. Brydone calcu- 
lates that volcanic stones have been discharged from Mtn.B> to a height 
of 7000 feet. 

Pliny's two letters to Tacitus on the subject of the eruption of 
Vesuvius, commemorated in the text, will always be read with deep 
interest. 

" Your request that I would send you an account of my uncle's death, 
in order to transmit a more exact relation of it to posterity, deserves my 
acknowledgements ; for, if this accident shall be celebrated by your pen, 
the glory of it, I am well assm-ed, will be rendered for ever illustrious. 
And notwithstanding he perished by a misfortune, which, as it involved at 
the same time a most beautiful country in ruins, and destroyed so many 
populous cities, seems to promise him an everlasting remembrance ; not- 
withstanding he has himself composed many and lasting works ; yet I am 
persuaded, the mentioning of him in your immortal writings will greatly 
contribute to eternize his name. Happy I esteem those to be, whom pro- 
vidence has distinguished with the abihties either of doing such actions as 
are worthy of being related, or of relating them in a manner worthy of 
being read ; but doubly happy are they who are blessed with both these 
uncommon talents : in the number of which my uncle, as his own writings, 
and your history will evidently prove, may justly be ranked. It is with 
extreme willingness, therefore, I execute yom* commands; and should 
indeed have claimed the task if you had not enjoined it. He was at that 
time with the fleet under his command at Misenum. On the 24th of 
August, about one in the afternoon, my mother desu'ed him to observe a 
cloud which appeared of a very unusual size and shape. He had just 
returned fr(?m taking the benefit of the sun, and after bathing himself in 
cold water, and taking a slight repast, was retired to his study : he imme- 
diately arose and went out upon an eminence from whence he might 
more distinctly view this very uncommon appearance. It was not at that 
distance discernible from what mountain this cloud issued, but it was 
found afterwards to ascend from mount Vesuvius. I cannot give you a 
more exact description of its figure, than by resembling it to that of a 
pine-tree, for it shot up a great height in the form of a trunk, which 
extended itself at the top into a sort of branches ; occasioned, I imagine, 
either by a sudden gust of air that impelled it, the force of. which de- 



182 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

creased as it advanced upwards, or the cloud itself being pressed back 
again by its ovm weight, expanded in this manner : it appeared some- 
times bright and sometimes dark spotted, as it was either more or less 
impregnated with earth and cinders. This extraordinary phenomenon 
excited my uncle's philosophical curiosity to take a nearer view of it. 
He ordered a light vessel to be got ready, and gave me the liberty, if I 
thought proper, to attend him. I rather chose to continue my studies ; 
for, as it happened, he had given me an employment of that kind. As he 
was coming out of the house he received a note from Rectina the wife 
of Bassus, who was in the utmost alarm at the imminent danger which 
threatened her ; for her villa being situated at the foot of mount Vesuvius, 
there was no way to escape but by sea ; she earnestly intreated him there- 
fore to come to her assistance. He accordingly changed his first design, 
and what he began with a philosophical, he pursued with an heroical turn 
of mind. He ordered the galleys to put to sea, and went himself on board 
with an intention of assisting not only Rectina, but several others ; for 
the villas stand extremely thick upon that beautiful coast. When hasten- 
ing to the place from whence others fled with the utmost terror, he 
steered his direct course to the point of danger, and with so much calm- 
ness and presence of mind, as to be able to make and dictate his obser- 
vations upon the motion and figure of that dreadful scene. He was 
now so nigh the mountain, that the cinders, which grew thicker and 
hotter the nearer he approached, fell into the ships, together with pumice- 
stones, and black pieces of burning rock : they were likewise in danger 
not only of being a- ground by the sudden retreat of the sea, but also 
from the vast fragments which rolled down from the mountain, and 
obstructed all the shore. Here he stopped to consider whether he should 
return back again; to which the pilot advising him. Fortune, said he, 
befriends the brave; Carry me to Pomponianus. Pomponianus was then 
at Stabise, separated by a gulf, which the sea, after several insensible 
windings, forms upon the shore. He had already sent his baggage on 
board; for though he was not at that time in actual danger, yet being 
within the view of it, and indeed extremely near, if it should in the least 
increase, he was determined to put to sea as soon as the wind should 
change. It was favourable, however, for carrying my uncle to Pomponi- 
anus, whom he found in the greatest consternation: he embraced him 
with tenderness, encouraging and exhorting him to keep up his spirits, 
and the more to dissipate his fears, he ordered, with an air of unconcern, 
the baths to be got ready; when after having bathed, he sate down to 
supper with great cheerfulness, or at least (what is equally heroic) with 
all the appearance of it. In the meanwhile the eruption from mount 
Vesuvius flamed out in several places with much violence, which the 
darkness of the night contributed to render still more visible and dread- 
ful. But my uncle, in order to soothe the apprehensions of his friend, 
assured him it was only the burning of the villages, which the country 
people had abandoned to the flames ; after this he retired to rest, and it 



m.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 183 

is most certain he was so little discomposed as to fall into a deep sleep ; 
for being pretty fat, and breathing hard, those who attended without 
actually heard him snore. The court which led to his apartment being 
now almost filled with stones and ashes, if he had continued there any 
time longer, it would have been impossible for him to have made his way 
out ; it was thought proper therefore to awaken him. He got up, and 
went to Pomponianus and the rest of his company, who were not uncon- 
cerned enough to think of going to bed. They consulted together 
whether it would be most prudent to trust to the houses, which now 
shook from side to side with frequent and violent concussions ; or fly to 
the open fields, where the calcined stones and cinders, though light 
indeed, yet fell in large showers, and threatened destruction. In this dis- 
tress they resolved for the fields, as the less dangerous situation of the 
two: a resolution which, while the rest of the company were hurried 
into by th^ir fears, my uncle embraced upon cool and deliberate con- 
sideration. They went out then, having pillows tied upon their heads 
with napkins; and this was their whole defence against the storm of 
stones that fell round them. It was now day everywhere else, but there 
a deeper darkness prevailed than in the most obscure night ; which, how- 
ever, was in some degree dissipated by torches and other lights of various 
kinds. They thought proper to go down farther upon the shore to ob- 
serve if they might safely put out to sea, but they found the waves still run 
extremely high and boisterous. There my uncle having drunk a draught 
or two of cold water, threw himself down upon a cloth which was spread 
for him, when immediately the flames, and a strong smell of sulphur, 
which was the forerunner of them, dispersed the rest of the company, and 
obliged him to rise. He raised himself up with the assistance of two of 
his servants, and instantly fell down dead ; suffocated, as I conjecture, by 
some gross and noxious vapour, having always had weak lungs, and fre- 
quently subject to a difficulty of breathing. As soon as it was light again, 
which was not till the third day after this melancholy accident, his body 
was found entire, and without any marks of violence upon it, exactly in 
the same posture that he fell, and looking more like a man asleep than 
dead. During all this time my mother and I who were at Misenum — 
But as this has no connexion with your history, so your inquiry went no 
farther than concerning my uncle's death ; with that therefore I will put 
an end to my letter : suffer me only to add, that I have faithfully related 
to you what I was either an eye-witness of myself, or received immedi- 
ately after the accident happened, and before there was time to vaiy the 
truth. You will choose out of this narrative such circumstances as 
shall be most suitable to your purpose : for there is a great difference 
between what is proper for a letter, and an history ; between writing to a 
friend, and writing to the public. Farewell." 

" The letter which, in compliance with your request, I wrote to you 
concerning the death of my uncle, has raised, it seems, your curiosity to 



184 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

know what terrors and dangers attended me while I continued at Mise- 
num; for there, I think, the account in my former letter broke off: 

Though my shock'd soul recoils, my tongue shall tell. 
My uncle having left us, I pursued the studies which prevented my going 
with him, till it was time to bathe. After which I went to supper, and 
from thence to bed, where my sleep was greatly broken and disturbed. 
There had been for many days before some shocks of an earthquake, 
which the less surprised us as they are extremely frequent in Campania ; 
but they were so particularly violent that night, that they not only shook 
every thing about us, but seemed indeed to threaten total destruction. 
My mother flew to my chamber, where she found me rising, in order to 
awaken her. We went out into a small court belonging to the house, 
which separated the sea from the buildings. As I was at that time but 
eighteen years of age, I know not whether I should call my behaviour in 
this dangerous juncture, courage or rashness; but I took up Livy, and 
amused myself with turning over that author, and even making extracts 
from him, as if all about me had been in full security. While we were 
in this posture, a friend of my uncle's, who was just come from Spain to 
pay him a visit, joined us, and observing me sitting by my mother with a 
book in my hand, greatly condemned her calmness, at the same time that 
he reproved me for my careless security : nevertheless I still went on with 
my author. Though it was now morning, the light was exceedingly faint 
and languid ; the buildings all around us tottered, and though we stood 
upon open ground, yet as the place was narrow and confined, there was 
no remaining there without certain and great danger : we therefore re- 
solved to quit the town. The people followed us in the utmost consterna- 
tion, and (as to a mind distracted with terror, every suggestion seems 
more prudent than its own) pressed in great crowds about us in our way 
out. Being got at a convenient distance from the houses, we stood still, 
in the midst of a most dangerous and dreadful scene. The chariots 
which we had ordered to be drawn out, were so agitated backwards and 
forwards, though upon the most level ground, that we could not keep 
them steady, even by supporting them with large stones. The sea seemed 
to roll back upon itself, and to be driven from its banks by the convul- 
sive motion of the earth ; it is certain at least the shore was considerably 
eidarged, and several sea-animals were left upon it. On the other side, a 
black and dreadful cloud bursting with an igneous serpentine vapour, 
darted out a long train of fire, resembling flashes of lightning, but much 
larger. Upon this our Spanish friend, whom I mentioned above, address- 
ing himself to my mother and me with great warmth and earnestness : If 
your brother and your uncle, said he, is safe, he certainly wishes you may he 
so too ; hut if he perished, it was his desire, no doubt, that you might both sur- 
vive him : Why therefore do you delay your escape a moment f We could 
never think of our own safety, we said, while we were uncertain of his. 
Hereupon our friend left us,, and withdrew from the danger with the 



m.] PLACES AND NATUKAL PHENOMENA. 185 

utmost precipitation. Soon afterwards the cloud seemed to descend and 
cover the whole ocean ; as indeed it entirely hid the Island of Caprea, 
and the promontory of Misenum. My mother strongly conjured me to 
make my escape at any rate, which as I was young I might easily do ; as 
for herself, she said, her age and corpulency rendered all attempts of that 
sort impossible ; however she would willingly meet death, if she could have 
the satisfaction of seeing that she was not the occasion of mine. But I 
absolutely refused to leave her, and taking her by the hand, I led her on : 
she complied with great reluctance, and not without many reproaches to 
herself for retarding my flight. The ashes now began to fall upon us, 
though in no great quantity. I turned my head, and observed behind 
us a thick smoke, which came rolling after us like a torrent. I pro- 
posed while we had yet any light to turn out of the high road, lest she 
should be pressed to death in the dark by the crowd that followed 
us. We had scarce stepped out of the path when darkness overspread 
us, not like that of a cloudy night, or when there is no moon, but of a 
room when it is shut up, and all the lights extinct. Nothing then was to 
be heard but the shrieks of women, the screams of children, and the 
cries of men; some calling for their children, others for their parents, 
others for their husbands, and only distinguishing each other by their 
voices; one lamenting his own fate, another that of his family; some wish- 
ing to die, from the very fear of dying ; some lifting their hands to the 
gods ; but the greater part imagining that the last and eternal night 
was come, which was to destroy both the gods and the world together. 
Among these there were some who augmented the real terrors by imagi- 
nary ones, and made the frighted multitude falsely believe that Misenum 
was actually in flames. At length a glimmering light appeared, which 
we imagined to be rather the forerunner of an approaching burst of 
flames (as in truth it was), than the return of day : however, the fire fell 
at a distance from us : then again we were immersed in thick darkness, and 
a heavy shower of ashes rained upon us, which we were obliged every 
now and then to shake ofi", otherwise we should have been crushed and 
buried in the heap. I might boast that, during all this scene of horror, 
not a sigh, or expression of fear, escaped from me, had not my support 
been founded in that miserable, though strong consolation, that all man- 
kind were involved in the same calamity, and that I imagined I was 
perishing with the world itself. At last this dreadful darkness was dissi- 
pated by degrees, like a cloud or smoke ; the real day returned, and even 
the sun appeared, though very faintly, and as when an eclipse is coming 
on. Every object that presented itself to our eyes (which were extremely 
weakened) seemed changed, being covered over with white ashes, as with 
a deep snow. We returned to Misenum, where we refreshed ourselves as 
well as we could, and passed an anxious night between hope and fear ; 
though indeed with a much larger share of the latter : for the earthquake 
still continued, while several enthusiastic people ran up and down height- 
ening their own and their friends' calamities by terrible predictions. How- 



186 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

ever, my mother and I, notwithstanding the danger we had passed, and 
that which still threatened us, had no thoughts of leaving the place till we 
should receive some account from my uncle. — 

" And now, you will read this narrative without any view of inserting 
it in your history, of which it is by no means worthy ; and, indeed, you 
must impute it to your own request, if it shall appear not to deserve even 
the trouble of a letter. Farewell." 



V. 

MOUNT ST BERNARD. 



Haec ubi saxa vides Bernard! in monte. Viator 

Pennini quondam templa fuere Jovis : 
Hospitium vetus, et multis memorabile sseclis ; 

Nunc colitur veri sanctior ara Dei. 
Scilicet hie olim voluit sibi ponere sedem 

Eeligio, et notis gaudet adesse jugis. 
Utque prius blanda venientes voce salutat, 

Deque via fessis alma ministrat opem. 
Et fractas reparat vires, reficitque medela 

Et fovet Alpino membra perusta gelu. 
Aut, quos obruerit subita nix lapsa ruina 

Eripit ex alta mole, vetatque mori. 
Temperat et Boreao rabiem, moUesque pruinas, 

Et facit ssterno vere tepere nives. 

Where these rude rocks on Bernard's summit nod. 

Once heavenwards sprung the throne of Pennine Jove, 

An ancient shrine of hospitable Love, 
Now burns the altar to the Christian's God. 
Here peaceful Piety, age on age, has trod 

The waste ; still keeps her vigils ; takes her rest ; 

Still, as of yore, salutes the coming guest, 
And cheers the weary as they onward rove, 
Healing each wayworn limb — or oft will start, 

Catching the storm-lost wanderer^s sinking cry, 
Speed the rich cordial to his ebbing heart, 

Chafe his stiff limbs, and bid him not to die. 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 187 

So tasked to smoothe stern Winter's drifting wing, 
And garb the eternal snows in more eternal spring. 

It may be regretted that the St Bernard Dogs have not an honourable 
place in this beautiful description, of which the Latin and English lines 
are taken from the Oxford Anthology. The Dogs of St Bernard are not 
unsung, as may be seen in the following description by Rogers : 

Night was again descending, when my mule. 
That all day long had climbed among the clouds, 
Higher and higher still, as by a stair 
Let down from Heaven itself, transporting me. 
Stopped, to the joy of both, at that low door 
So near the summit of the Great St Bernard ; 
That door which ever on its hinges moved 
To them that knocked, and nightly sends abroad 
Ministering Spirits. Lying on the watch. 
Two dogs of grave demeanour welcomed me, 
All meekness, gentleness, though large of limb ; 
And a lay-brother of the Hospital, 
Who, as we toiled below, had heard by fits 
The distant echoes gaining on his ear, 
Came and held fast my stirrup in his hand 
While I alighted. 

Long could I have stood, 
With a religious awe, contemplating 
That house, the highest in the Ancient World, 
And placed there for the noblest purposes. 
'Twas a rude pile of simplest masonry. 
With naiTOw windows and vast buttresses. 
But to endure the shocks of Time and Chance ; 
Yet shewing many a rent, as well it might. 
Warred on for ever by the elements. 
And in an evil day, nor long ago. 
By violent men — when on the mountain-top 
The French and Austrian banners met in conflict. 
On the same rock beside it stood the church. 
Reft of its cross, not of its sanctity ; 
The vesper-bell, for 'twas the vesper-hour. 
Duly proclaiming through the wilderness, 
" All ye who hear, whatever be your work. 
Stop for an instant — move your lips in prayer ! " 
And, just beneath it, in that dreary dale. 
If dale it might be called, so near to heaven, 
A little lake, where never fish leaped up, 
Lay like a spot of ink amid the snow ; 



188 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

A star, the only one in that small sky, 

On its dead surface glimmering. 'Twas a scene 

Resembling nothing I had left behind, 

As though all worldly ties were now dissolved ; — 

And, to incline the mind still more to thought, 

To thought and sadness, on the eastern shore 

Under a beetling cliff stood half in shadow 

A lonely chapel destined for the dead, 

For such as having wandered from their way, 

Had perished miserably. Side by side, 

Within they lie, a mournful company. 

All in their shrouds, no earth to cover them ; 

Their features full of life, yet motionless. 

In the broad day, nor soon to suffer change. 

Though the barred windows, barred against the wolf, 

Are always open ! 

But the Bise blew cold ; 
And bidden to a spare, but cheerful meal, 
I sate among the holy brotherhood 
At their long board. The fare indeed was such 
As is prescribed on days of abstinence. 
But might have pleased a nicer taste than mine. 
And through the floor came up, an ancient matron 
Serving unseen below ; while from the roof 
(The roof, the floor, the walls of native fir,) 
A lamp hung flickering, such as loves to fling 
Its partial light on Apostolic heads. 
And sheds a grace on all. Theirs Time as yet 
Had changed not. Some were almost in the prime. 
Nor was a brow o'ercast. Seen as I saw them, 
Ranged round their ample hearth-stone, in an hour 
Of rest, they were as gay, as free from guile 
As children ; answering, and at once, to all 
The gentle impulses, to pleasure, mirth; 
Mingling, at intervals, with rational talk. 
Music ; and gathering news from them that came, 
As of some other world. But when the storm 
Rose, and the snow rolled on in ocean-billows. 
When on his face the experienced traveller fell, 
Sheltering his lips and nostrils with his hands. 
Then all was changed ; and, sallying with their pack 
Into that blank of nature, they became 
Unearthly beings. " Anselm, higher up 
A dog howls loud and long, and now, observe. 
Digs with his feet how eagerly ! A man. 
Dying or dead, lies buried underneath ! 



III.] PLACES A]SD NATURAL PHENOMENA. 189 

Let us to work ! there is no time to lose ! — 
But who descends Mont Velan ? *Tis La Croix. 
Away, away ! if not, alas, too late. 
Homeward he drags an old man and a boy, 
Faltering and falling, and but half awakened, 
Asking to sleep again." Such their discourse. • 



VI. 
THE ALPS. 



Cuncta gelu canaque seternum grandine tecta, 
Atque sevi glaciem cohibent : riget ardua montis 
-^therii facies, surgentique obvia PhoBbo 
Duratas nescit flammis mollire pruinas. 
Quantum Tartareus regni pallentis hiatus 
Ad manes imos atque atrse stagna paludis 
A supera tellure patet : tarn longa per auras 
Erigitur tellus, et coelum intercipit umbra. 
Nullum ver usquam, nuUique aestatis honores ; 
Sola jugis habitat diris, sedesque tuetur 
Perpetuas deformis hyems : ilia undique nubes 
Hue atras agit et mixtos cum grandine nimbos. 
Nam euncti flatus ventique furentia regna 
Alpina posuere domo, caligat in altis 
Obtutus saxis, abeuntque in nubila montes. 

Stiff with eternal ice, and hid in snow. 

That fell a thousand centuries ago, 

The mountain stands ; nor can the rising sun 

Unfix her frosts, and teach them how to run : 

Deep as the dark infernal waters lie 

From the bright regions of the cheerful sky, 

So far the proud ascending rocks invade 

Heav'n's upper realms, and cast a dreadful shade 

No spring, nor summer, on the mountain seen, 

Smiles with gay fruits, or with delightful green ; 



190 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Cir. 

But hoary winter unadorn'd and bare, 
Dwells in the dire retreat, and freezes there ; 
There she assembles all her blackest storms, 
And the rude hail in rattling tempests forms ; 
Thither the loud tumultuous winds resort, 
And on the mountain keep their boist'rous court, - 
That in thick show'rs her rocky summit shrouds, 
And darkens all the broken view with clouds. 

The Latin is by Silius Italicus, the English by Addison. The authori- 
ties and controversial writers on the subject of the passage of Hannibal 
over the Alps, are referred to in Dr Smith's Dictionary. The writer of 
the article concurs with Mebuhr and Arnold, in inferring that Hannibal 
crossed by the pass of Little St Bernard, whilst French writers generally 
are in favour of that by Mont Genevre or Mont Cenis. Hannibal was 
fifteen days in crossing the Alps, and when he arrived in the valley of the 
Po, had only 20,000 foot and 6,000 horse. Hannibal's use of vinegar for 
the purpose of softening the Alps, seems credited by Livy, Juvenal, and 
Silius, but Polybius treats it with silence, as does Cornelius Nepos. In 
poetry, however, no one can willingly part with any line or word of 
Juvenal's Hannibal. Some of the sublimest description of Alpine scenery, 
in English verse, (as particularly of the mountain of the Jungfrau), 
occurs in Byron's Manfred. The following is the description of the Alps 
in Rogers' Italy : 

Who first beholds those everlasting clouds, 

Seed-time and harvest, morning, noon and night. 

Still where they were, stedfast, immovable ; 

Who first beholds the Alps — that mighty chain 

Of Mountains, stretching on from east to west. 

So massive, yet so shadowy, so ethereal. 

As to belong rather to Heaven than Earth — 

But instantly receives into his soul 

A sense, a feeling that he loses not, 

A something that informs him 'tis a moment 

Whence he may date henceforward and for ever ? 

To me they seemed the barriers of a World, 
Saying, Thus far, no farther ! and as o'er 
The level plain I travelled silently, 
Nearing them more and more, day after day. 
My wandering thoughts my only company, 
And they before me still, oft as I looked, 
A strange delight, mingled with fear, came o'er me, 
A wonder as at things I had not heard of! 
Oft as I looked, I felt as though it were 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 191 

For the first time ! ij 

Great was the tumult there, ; 

Deafening the din, when in barbaric pomp 1 

The Carthaginian on his march to Rome | 

Entered their fastnesses. Trampling the snows, I 

The war-horse reared ; and the towered elephant j 

Upturned his trunk into the murky sky, ;i 

Then tumbled headlong, swallowed up and lost, 1 
He and his rider. 

Now the scene is changed ; : 

And o'er Mont Cenis, o'er the Simplon winds i 

A path of pleasure. Like a silver zone ' I 
Flung about carelessly, it shines afar, 

Catching the eye in many a broken link, : 

In many a turn and traverse as it gUdes ; i 
And oft above and oft below appears. 

Seen o'er the wall by him who journeys up, i 

As though it were another, not the same, ; 

Leading along he knows not whence or whither. \ 
Yet through its fairy-course, go where it will, 

The torrent stops it not, the rugged rock : 

Opens and lets it in ; and on it runs, j 

Winning its easy way from clime to clime ' 
Through glens locked up before. 

Not such my path! 
Mine but for those, who, like Jean Jaques, delight 
In dizziness, gazing and shuddering on 
Till fascination comes and the brain turns ! 

Mine, though I judge but from my ague-fits ' 
Over the Drance, just where the Abbot fell, 

The same as Hannibal's. ; 

But now 'tis past. 
That turbulent Chaos ; and the promised land 

Lies at my feet in all its loveliness ! j 

To him who starts up from a terrible dream, ; 

And lo, the sun is shining, and the lark j 
Singing aloud for joy, to him is not 

Such sudden ravishment as now I feel | 

At the first glimpses of fair Italy. j 



192 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

VII. 

F^SULiE. 
(A) 

Hie resonat blando tibi pinus amata susurro ; 
Hie vaga coniferis insibilat aura cupressis : 
Hie seatebris salit, et buUantibus incita venis 
Pura coloratos inter strepit unda lapillos. 
Talia Fsesuleo lentus meditabar in antro, 
Eure suburbano Medieum, qua mons saeer urbem 
MsBoniam, longique volumina despieit Arni, 
Qua bonus hospitium felix, placidamque quietem 
Indulgens Laurens, Laurens non ultima Phoebi 
Gloria, jaetatis Laurens fida anehora musis. 

Here whisper the tall pines I hold so dear, 
Here through the cypress boughs the zephyrs sigh, 
Here from the earth the bubbling fountain springs, 
And rolls pellucid o'er its chequer'd bed. 

Thus pensive mus'd I, in the lonely grots 
Of Fsesulae, great Medici's retreat 
From pomp and care, where on Florentia's towers, 
And on fair Arno winding through the vale, 
The sacred hill looks down : Lorenzo there 
His guests receives, and tranquil quiet seeks ; 
Lorenzo, happy prince ! the favoured son 
Of Phoebus, and the Muses' firm support. 

(B) 

Oh Faesulse amoena 
Frigoribus juga, nee nimium spirantibus auris ! 
Alma quibus Tusci Pallas decus Apennini 
Esse dedit, glaucaque sua canescere sylva ! 
Non ego vos posthac Arni de valle videbo 
Porticibus circum, et candenti cincta corona 
Villarum longe nitido consurgere dorso, 
Antiquamve ^dem, et veteres prseferre cupressus 
Mirabor, tectisque super pendentia tecta. 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 193 

Oh Heights of Fsesulse, cooled by refreshing and yet 
not tumultuous breezes ; to whom Minerva has vouchsafed 
to be the glory of the Tuscan Apennines, and to be con- 
spicuous for the peculiar verdure of your groves ! I shall 
no longer behold you from the valley of the Arno, crowned 
with porticos and villas, or that ancient Cathedral, or 
those venerable cypresses, or those edifices that overhang 
edifices below. 

The first piece is by Politian, the second by Gray. Fsesulae is the 
most conspicuous and attractive object in the immediate vicinity of Flo- 
rence. It is thus described by Eustace : 

" Placed on the summit of a lofty and broken eminence, it looks down 
on the vale of the Arno, and commands Florence with all its domes, 
towers, and palaces, the villas that encircle it, and the roads that lead to 
it. The recesses, swells, and breaks of the hill on which it stands, are 
covered with groves of pines, ilex, and cypress. Above these groves rises 
the dome of the cathedral ; and in the midst of them reposes a rich and 
venerable abbey, founded by the Medicean family. Behind the hill at a 
distance swell the Apennines. That a place graced with so many beauties 
should delight the poet and the philosopher is not wonderful, and ac- 
cordingly we find it alluded to with complacency by Milton, panegyrized 
by Politian, inhabited by Picus, and frequented by Lorenzo.'* 

It was from the top of Fsesulse that Milton represents Galileo descrying 
the wonders of his newly-invented telescope : 

Like the Moon, whose orb 
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views, 
At evening from the top of Fcesulce, 
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands. 
Elvers, or mountains in her spotty globe. 



13 



194 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

VIII. 
BAI^. 

Dum nos blanda tenent jucundi stagna Lucrini, 

Et quse pumiceis fontibus antra calent, 
Tu colis Argivi regnum Faustine coloni, 

Quo te bis decimus ducit ab urbe lapis. 
Horrida sed fervent Nemesei pectora monstri : 

Nee satis est Bajas igne calere suo. 
Ergo sacri fontes, et littora sacra valete, 

Nympharum pariter, Nereidumque domus ! 
Herculeos colles gelida vos vincite bruma, 

Nunc Tiburtinis cedite frigoribus. 

While near the Lucrine lake, consum'd to death, 
I draw the sultry air, and gasp for breath, 
Where streams of sulphur raise a stifling heat, 
And through the pores of the warm pumice sweat ; 
You taste the cooling breeze, where nearer home 
The twentieth pillar marks the mile from Eome : 
And now the Sun to the bright Lion turns, 
And Baja with redoubled fury burns ; 
Then briny seas and tasteful springs farewell. 
Where fountain-nymphs confus'd with Nereids dwell, 
In winter you may all the world despise. 
But now 'tis Tivoli that bears the prize. 

The version of Martial's epigram is by Addison. — Baise was the winter 
retreat of the Romans, that being the proper season to enjoy the Baian 
Suns (Baiani Soles). The face of the country about Baiae has been 
changed by earthquakes : the sea has overwhelmed a multitude of pa- 
laces, the ruins of which may be seen at the bottom of the water in a 
calm day at a considerable distance from the land, though the present 
bay of Baise is lined with the ruins of villas and baths. Horace notices 
a prevailing taste for building in the waters and encroaching on the sea 
in this very locality. The vicinity of Baise was considered by the Ro- 
mans as under the peculiar favour of Yenus, who had a celebrated temple 
there, the ruins of which are still visible. The ancient amusements of 
Baise are represented in a very agreeable as well as learned point of view 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 195 

in the seventh scene of Bekker's Gallus, entitled ' A Day in Baise." The 
smiling features and delicious climate of Baise afford a melancholy con- 
trast between the beauties of nature and the crimes which have been 
perpetrated in that neighbourhood by those monsters of our species, 
Nero, Tiberius and Caracalla. Anstey took for the motto of his Bath 
Guide a line from Horace in praise of Baisc, with a slight variation — "No 
place in the world is more attractive than the pleasant Bath." 
NuUus in orbe sinus (locus) Bails prselucet amcenis. 



IX. 
A FORMIAN VILLA. 



O temperatae dulce Formiae litus, 
Vos, cum severi fugit oppidum Martis, 
Et inquietas fessus exuit curas, 
Apollinaris omnibus locis prsefert. 
Non ille sanctse dulce Tibur uxoris, 
Nee Tusculanos, Algidosve secessus, 
Prseneste nee sic, Antiumve miratur. 
Non blanda Circe, Dardanisve Cajeta 
Desiderantur, nee Marica, nee Liris, 
Nee in Lucrina lota Salmacis vena. 
Hie summa leni stringitur Thetis vento ; 
Nee languet a^quor : viva sed quies Ponti 
Pictam phaselon adjuvante fert aura ; 
Sicut puellae non amantis sestatem 
Mota salubre purpura venit frigus. 
Nee sera longo quserit in mari prsedam, 
Sed a cubili lectuloque jactatam 
Spectatus alte lineam trahit piscis. 
Si quando Nereus sentit ^oli regnum, 
Ridet procellas tuta de suo mensa. 
Piscina rhombum pascit, et lupos vernas ; 
Natat ad magistrum delicata mursena. 
Nomenculator mugilem citat notum, 
Et adesse jussi prodeunt senes muUi. 
Frui sed istis quando Roma permittit ? 

13—2 



196 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Quot Formianos imputat dies annus 
Negotiosis rebus urbis hserenti ? 
O janitores, villicique felices ! 
Dominis parantur ista ; serviunt vobis. 

O delightful shore of temperate Formia ! ApoUinaris, 
when he is able to fly from the city of ruthless Mars, and 
can lay aside for a time his wearisome cares, prefers you 
to every spot on earth. Tibur, Tusculum, Algidum, Pras- 
neste, Antium, Mount Circe, the promontory of Gsetae, the 
grove of Lsenia, the river Lyris, or Salmacis by the Lucrine 
lake, these are summer-retreats extolled by many ; but 
ApoUinaris prefers Formia to them all. Here the sea is 
not tost by storms, but its surface is placidly rippled by the 
Zephyrs. The air however is not so languid but that it 
gently wafts on its course the painted galley. The air may 
be compared to that raised by the fan of a damsel seeking 
to create an artificial coolness in the heat of the day. Do 
you wish to enjoy the amusement of fishing, you are not 
obliged to put out to sea to enjoy it : but, whilst you 
recline on your couch, you may see the fishes as they hook 
themselves to your line. If ever a storm, though rare, be 
raised, it is a pleasure to watch it in safety from your 
table. You have a fishpond stocked with turbots and pike, 
and the choicest delicacies of gastronomy. Lampreys 
swim to their master when he calls them. A Nomenclator 
cites your familiar mullets, and, aged servants as they are, 
they obey his call. But how rarely does Kome allow of 
such enjoyments ! How few Formian days can any one 
who is immersed in the business of the city promise him- 
self ! Happy swains, and country domestics, these rural 
luxuries are prepared for your Masters, but, in truth, they 
wait upon You. 

Martial has given several other descriptions of Roman Villas, as the 
Baian Villa of Faustinus, and Martialis*s Villa which commanded a view 
of the seven hills of Rome, from which a motto is frequently taken for 
maps of Rome, and to which Pope appears to have been indebted for the 
expression, " And yours, my friends ! " which may be seen inscribed over 
the door of a splendid mansion in Somersetshire. Roman villas are 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 197 

placed in a lively and at the same time learned point of view in the fifth 
scene of Bekker's Gallus, entitled ' The Villa/ And they are adorned and 
peopled by the imagination of Sir Edward Lytton, in his Last Days of 
Pompeii. Rogers, in his Italy, notices the villas in that City of the Dead, 
and particularly adverts to the hospitable invitation conveyed in the 
word Ave, inscribed over the doors of villas, the import of which is more 
fully expressed by Pope, 

Through this wide-opening gate 
None come too early ; none return too late. 

The following descriptions by Pliny of two of his own villas, will give 
the reader a Hfe-like representation of rural and literary enjoyment 
among the Romans. 

" You are surprised, it seems, that I am so fond of my Laurentinum, 
or (if you like the appellation better) my Laurens : but you will cease to 
wonder, when I acquaint you with the beauty of the villa, the advantages 
of its situation, and the extensive prospect of the sea-coast. It is but 
seventeen miles distant from Rome ; so that having finished my affairs 
in town, I can pass my evenings here without breaking in upon the busi- 
ness of the day. There are two different roads to it ; if you go by that 
of Laurentum, you must turn off at the fourteenth mile-stone ; if by 
Ostia, at the eleventh. Both of them are in some parts sandy, which 
makes it something heavy and tedious if you travel in a coach, but easy 
and pleasant to those who ride. The landscape on all sides is extremely 
diversified, the prospect in some places being confined by woods, in others 
extending over large and beautiful meadows, where numberless flocks of 
sheep and herds of cattle, which the severity of the winter has drove 
from the mountains, fatten in the vernal warmth of this rich pasturage. 
My villa is large enough to afford conveniences, without being extensive. 
The porch before it is plain, but not mean, through which you enter into 
a portico in the form of the letter D, which includes a small, but agree- 
able area. This affords a very commodious retreat in bad weather, not 
only as it is inclosed with windows, but particularly as it is sheltered by 
an extraordinai-y projection of the roof. From the middle of this por- 
tico you pass into an inward court extremely pleasant, and from thence 
into a handsome hall which runs out towards the sea ; so that when there 
is a south-west wind it is gently washed with the waves, which spend 
themselves at the foot of it. On every side of this hall there are either 
folding-doors or windows equally large, by which means you have a view 
from the front and the two sides, as it were of three different seas : from 
the back part you see the middle court, the portico and the area ; and 
by another view you look through the portico into the porch, from whence 
the prospect is terminated by the woods and mountains which are seen 
at a distance. On the left-hand of this hall, something farther from 
the sea, lies a large drawing-room, and beyond that, a second of a smaller 
size, which has one window to the rising, and another to the setting sun: 



198 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

this has likewise a prospect of the sea, but being at a greater distance, is 
less incommoded by it. The angle which the projection of the hall 
forms with this drawing-room, retains and increases the warmth of the 
sun, and hither my family retreat in winter to perform their exercises : it 
is sheltered from all winds except those which are generally attended 
with clouds, so that nothing can render this place useless, but what at 
the same time destroys the fair weather. Contiguous to this, is a room 
forming the segment of a circle, the windows of which are so placed as 
to receive the sun the whole day : in the walls are contrived a sort of 
cases, which contain a collection of such authors whose works can never 
be read too often. From hence you pass into a bed-chamber through a, 
passage, which being boarded and suspended as it were over a stove 
which runs underneath, tempers the heat that it receives and conveys 
to all parts of this room. The remainder of this side of the house is 
appropriated to the use of my slaves and freedmen ; but however most 
of the apartments in it are neat enough to entertain any of my friends, 
who are inclined to be my guests. In the opposite wing is a room orna- 
mented in a very elegant taste ; next to which lies another room, which, 
though large for a parlour, makes but a moderate dining-room ; it is ex- 
ceedingly warmed and enlightened not only by the direct rays of the sun, 
but by their reflection from the sea. Beyond this, is a bed-chamber 
together with its anti-chamber, the height of which renders it cool in 
summer, as its being sheltered on all sides from the winds makes it warm 
in winter. To this apartment another of the same sort is joined by one 
common wall. From thence you enter into the grand and spacious 
cooling room belonging to the baths, from the opposite walls of which 
two round basins project, large enough to swim in. Contiguous to this 
is the perfuming-room, then the sweating-room, and beyond that the fur- 
nace which conveys the heat to the baths : adjoining are two other little 
bathing-rooms, which are fitted up in an elegant rather than costly 
manner : annexed to this, is a warm bath of extraordinary workmanship, 
wherein one may swim, and have a prospect at the same time of the sea. 
Not far from hence stands the tennis-court, which lies open to the 
warmth of the afternoon sun. From thence you ascend a sort of turret, 
which contains two entire apartments below; as there are the same 
number above, besides a dining-room which commands a very extensive 
prospect of the sea and coast, together with the beautiful villas that stand 
interspersed upon it. At the other end, is a second turret, containing a 
room which faces the rising and setting sun. Behind this, is a large 
room for a repository, near to which is a gallery of curiosities, and under- 
neath a spacious dining-room, where the roaring of the sea, even in a 
storm, is heard but faintly : it looks upon the garden, and the gestatio, 
which surrounds the garden. The gestatio is encompassed with a box- 
tree hedge, and where that is decayed, with rosemary ; for the box in 
those parts which are sheltered by the buildings, preserves its verdure 
perfectly well ; but where by an open situation it lies exposed to the 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 199 

dashing of the sea-water, though at a great distance, it entirely withers. 
Between the garden and this gestatio runs a shady walk of vines, which 
is so soft that you may walk barefoot upon it without any injury. The 
garden is chiefly planted with fig and mulberry- trees, to which this soil 
is as favourable, as it is averse to all others. In this place is a banquet- 
ing-room, which though it stands remote from the sea, enjoys however a 
prospect nothing inferior to that view : two apartments run round the 
back part of it, whose windows look upon the entrance of the villa, and 
into a very pleasant kitchen-garden. From hence an inclosed portico 
extends itself, which by its grandeur you might take for a public one. 
It has a range of windows on each side, but on that which looks towards 
the sea they are double the number of those next the garden. When the 
weather is fair and serene, these are all thi'own open ; but if it blows, 
those on the side the wind sits are shut, while the others remain unclosed 
without any inconvenience. Before this portico lies a terrace perfumed 
with violets, and warmed by the reflection of the sun from the portico, 
which as it retains the rays, so it keeps off the north-east wind ; and it is 
as warm on this side, as it is cool on the opposite : in the same manner 
it is a defence against the south-west ; and thus, in short, by means of 
its several sides, breaks the force of the winds from what point soever 
they blow. These are some of the winter-advantages of this agreeable 
situation, which however are still more considerable in the summer ; for 
at that season it throws a shade upon the terrace during all the forenoon, 
as it defends the gestatio, and that part of the garden which lies conti- 
guous to it, from the afternoon sun, and casts a greater or less shade, as 
the day either increases or decreases ; but the portico itself is then coolest 
when the sun is most scorching, that is, when its rays fall directly upon 
the roof. To these advantages I must not forget to add, that by setting 
open the windows, the western breezes have a free draught, and by that 
means the enclosed air is prevented from stagnating. On the upper end 
of the terrace and portico stands a detached building in the garden, 
which I call my favourite ; and in truth I am extremely fond of it, as I 
erected it myself. It contains a very warm winter-room, one side of 
which looks upon the terrace, the other has a view of the sea, and both 
lie exposed to the sun. Through the folding-doors you see the opposite 
chamber, and from the window is a prospect of the enclosed portico. On 
that side next the sea, and opposite to the middle wall, stands a little 
elegant retired closet, which by means of glass doors and a curtain, is 
either laid into the adjoining room, or separated from it. It contains a 
couch and two chairs : As you lie upon this couch, from the feet you 
have a prospect of the sea; if you look behind, you see the neighbouring 
villas ; and from the head you have a view of the woods : these three 
views may be seen either distinctly from so many different windows in 
the room, or blended together in one confused prospect. Adjoining to 
this, is a bed-chamber, which neither the voice of the servants, the 
murmur of the sea, nor even the roaring of a tempest can reach ; not 



200 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

lightning nor the day itself can penetrate it, unless you open the win- 
dows. This profound tranquillity is occasioned by a passage, which 
divides the wall of this chamber from that of the garden, and thus by 
means of that yoid intervening space every noise is drowned. Annexed 
to this, is a small stove- room, which by opening a little window, warms 
the bed-chamber to the degree of heat required. Beyond this, lies a 
chamber and an ti- chamber, which enjoys the sun, though obliquely 
indeed, from the time it rises till the afternoon. When I retire to this 
garden-apartment, I fancy myself a hundred miles from my own house, 
and take particular pleasure in it at the feast of the Saturnalia, when, by 
the license of that season of joy, every other part of my villa resounds 
with the mirth of my domestics: thus I neither interrupt their diversions, 
nor they my studies. Among the pleasures and conveniences of this 
situation, there is one disadvantage, and that is, the want of a running 
stream ; but this defect is in a great measure supplied by wells, or rather 
I should call them springs, for they rise very near the surface. And in- 
deed the quality of this coast is pretty remarkable ; for in what part 
soever you dig, you meet, upon the first turning up of the ground, with a 
spring of pure water, not in the least salt, though so near the sea. The 
neighbouring forests afford an abundant supply of fuel ; as every other 
convenience of life may be had from Ostia : to a moderate man, indeed, 
even the next village (between which and my house there is only one 
villa) would furnish all common necessaries. In that little place there 
are no less than three public baths ; which is a great conveniency if it 
happens that my friends come in unexpectedly, or make too short a stay 
to allow time for preparing my own. The whole coast is beautifully 
diversified by the joining or detached villas that are spread upon it, which 
whether you view them from the sea or the shore, have a much more 
agreeable effect, than if it were crowded with towns. It is sometimes, 
after a long calm, good travelling upon the coast, though in general, by 
the storms driving the waves upon it, it is rough and uneven. I cannot 
boast that our sea produces any very extraordinary fish ; however it 
supplies us with exceeding fine soles and prawns : but as to provisions of 
other kinds, my villa pretends to excel even inland countries, particularly 
in milk ; for thither the cattle come from the meadows in great numbers, 
in pursuit of shade and water. Tell me now, have I not just cause to 
bestow my time and my affection upon this delightful retreat ? Surely 
you are unreasonably attached to the pleasures of the town, if you have 
no inclination to take a view of it ; as I much wish you had, that to 
so many charms with which my favourite villa abounds, it might have the 
very considerable addition of your presence to recommend it. Farewell." 

" The kind concern you expressed when you heard of my design to 
pass the summer at my villa in Tuscany, and your obliging endeavours 
to dissuade me from going to a place which you think unhealthy, is 
extremely agreeable to me. I confess, indeed, the air of that part of 
Tuscany, which lies towards the coast, is thick and unwholesome : but 



m.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 201 

my house is situated at a great distance from the sea, under one of the 
Apennine mountains, which, of all others, is most esteemed for the clear- 
ness of its air. But that you may lay aside all apprehensions on my 
account, I will give you a description of the temperature of the climate, 
the situation of the country, and the beauty of my villa, which I am per- 
suaded you will hear with as much pleasure as I shall relate. The 
winters are severe and cold, so that myrtles, olives, and trees of that 
kind which delight in constant warmth, will not flourish here ; but it 
produces bay-trees in great perfection ; yet sometimes, though indeed 
not oftener than in the neighbourhood of Rome, they are killed by the 
sharpness of the seasons. The summers are exceedingly temperate, and 
continually attended with refreshing breezes, which are seldom inter- 
rupted by high winds. If you were to come here and see the numbers 
of old men who have lived to be grandfathers and great-grandfathers, 
and hear the stories they can entertain you with of their ancestors, you 
would fancy yourself born in some former age. The diposition of the 
country is the most beautiful that can be imagined : figure to yourself an 
immense amphitheatre ; but such as the hand of nature could only form. 
Before you lies a vast extended plain bounded by a range of mountains 
whose summits are covered with lofty and venerable woods, which 
supply variety of game ; from hence, as the mountains decline, they are 
adorned with underwoods. Intermixed with these are little hills of so 
strong and fat a soil, that it would be difficult to find a single stone upon 
them ; their fertility is nothing inferior to the lowest grounds ; and 
though their harvest indeed is something later, their crops are well 
matured. At the foot of these hills the eye is presented, wherever it 
turns, with one unbroken view of numberless vineyards, which are termi- 
nated by a border, as it were, of shrubs. From thence you have a pro- 
spect of the adjoinig fields and meadows below. The soil of the former 
is so extremely stiff", and upon the first ploughing it rises in such vast 
clods, that it is necessary to go over it nine several times with the largest 
oxen and the strongest ploughs, before they can be thoroughly broken ; 
whilst the enamelled meadows produce trefoil, and other kinds of herbage 
as fine and tender as if it were but just sprung up, being continually 
refreshed by never-failing rills. But though the country abounds with 
great plenty of water, there are no marshes ; for as it is a rising ground, 
whatever water it receives without absorbing, runs off" into the Tiber. 
This river, which winds through the middle of the meadows, is navigable 
only in the winter and spring, when it transports the produce of the 
lands to Rome : but its channel is so extremely low in summer, that it 
scarce deserves the name of a river : towards the autumn, however, it 
begins again to renew its claim to that title. You could not be more 
agreeably entertained, than by taking a view of the face of this country 
from the top of one of our neighbouring mountains : you would imagine 
that not a real, but some painted landscape lay before you, drawn with 
the most exquisite beauty and exactness; such an harmonious and 



202 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

regular variety charms the eye, which way soever it throws itself. My 
villa is so advantageously situated, that it commands a full view of all 
the country round ; yet you go up to it by so insensible a rise, that you 
find yourself upon an elevation without perceiving you ascended. Behind, 
but at a great distance, stand the Apennine mountains. In the calmest 
days we are refreshed by the winds that blow from thence, but so spent, 
as it were, by the long tract of land they travel over, that they are en- 
tirely divested of all their strength and violence before they reach us. 
The exposition of the principal front of the house is full south, and seems 
to invite the afternoon sun in summer (but something earlier in winter) 
into a spacious and well-proportioned portico, consisting of several mem- 
bers, particularly a porch built after the manner of the ancients. In the 
front of the portico is a sort of terrace, embellished with various figures, 
and bounded with a box-hedge, from whence you descend by an easy 
slope, adorned with the representation of divers animals in box answering 
alternately to each other, into a lawn overspread with the soft, I had 
almost said, the liquid acanthus : this is surrounded by a walk inclosed 
with tensile evergreens, shaped into a variety of forms. Beyond it is the 
gestatio laid out in the form of a circus, ornamented in the middle with 
box cut in numberless different figures, together with a plantation of 
shrubs prevented by the shears from running up too high : the whole is 
fenced in with a wall covered by box, rising by different ranges to the 
top. On the outside of the wall lies a meadow that owes as many beau- 
ties to nature, as all I have been describing within does to art ; at the 
end of which are several other meadows and fields interspersed with 
thickets. At the extremity of the portico stands a grand dining-room, 
which opens upon one end of the terrace ; as from the windows there is 
a very extensive prospect over the meadows up into the country, from 
whence you also have a view of the terrace and such parts of the house 
which project forward, together with the woods inclosing the adjacent 
hippodrome. Opposite almost to the centre of the portico stands an 
apartment something backwards, which encompasses a small area, shaded 
by four plane-trees, in the midst of which a fountain rises, from whence 
the water running over the edges of a marble basin gently refreshes the 
surrounding plane-trees and the verdure underneath them. This apart- 
ment consists of a bed-chamber free from every kind of noise, and which 
the light itself cannot penetrate ; together with a common dining-room 
that I use whenever I have none but familiar friends with me. A 
second portico looks upon this little area, and has the same prospect 
with the former I just now described. There is besides, another room 
which being situated close to the nearest plane-tree, enjoys a constant 
shade and verdure : its sides are incrusted half way with carved marble, 
and from thence to the ceihng a foliage is painted with birds intermixed 
among the branches, which has an effect altogether as agreeable as that 
of the carving ; at the basis of which is placed a little fountain, that play- 
ing through several small pipes into a vase, produces a most pleasing 



Ill] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 203 

murmur. From a corner of the portico you enter into a very spacious 
chamber opposite to the grand dining-room, which from some of its win- 
dows has a view of the terrace, and from others of the meadow, as those 
in the front look upon a cascade, which entertains at once both the eye 
and the ear ; for the water falling from a great height, foams round the 
marble basin, which receives it below. This room is extremely warm in 
winter, being much exposed to the sun, as in a cloudy day the heat of an 
adjoining stove very well supplies his absence. From hence you pass 
through a spacious and pleasant undressing room into the cold-bath-room, 
in which is a large gloomy bath : but if you are disposed to swim more 
at large, or in warmer water, in the middle of the area is a wide basin 
for that purpose, and near it a reservoir from whence you may be sup- 
plied with cold water to brace yourself again, if you should perceive you 
are too much relaxed by the warm. Contiguous to the cold-bath is one 
of a middling degree of heat, which enjoys the kindly warmth of the sun, 
but not so intensely as that of the hot-bath, which projects farther. 
This last consists of three several divisions, each of different degrees of 
heat ; the two former lie open to the full sun, the latter, though not so 
much exposed to its heat, receives an equal share of its light. Over the 
undressing room is built the tennis-court, which by means of different 
circles admits of different kinds of games. Not far from the baths, is 
the staircase which leads to the inclosed portico, after having first passed 
through three apartments : one of these looks upon the little area with 
the four plane-trees round it, the other has a sight of the meadows, and 
from the third you have a view of several vineyards ; so that they have as 
many different prospects as expositions. At one end of the inclosed 
portico, and indeed taken off from it, is a chamber that looks upon the 
hippodrome, the vineyards, and the mountains ; adjoining is a room which 
has a full exposure to the sun, especially in winter : from hence runs an 
apartment that connects the hippodrome with the house : and sucii is the 
form and aspect of the front. On the side is a summer inclosed portico 
which stands high, and has not only a prospect of the vineyards, but 
seems almost to touch them. From the middle of this portico you enter 
a dining-room cooled by the wholesome breezes which come from the 
Apennine valleys : from the windows in the back front, which are ex- 
tremely large, there is a prospect of the vineyards, as you have also 
another view of them from the folding-doors through the summer 
portico : along that side of this dining-room where there are no windows, 
runs a private staircase for the greater conveniency of serving at enter- 
tainments : at the farther end is a chamber from whence the eye is 
entertained with a view of the vineyards, and (what is equally agreeable) 
of the portico. Underneath this room is an inclosed portico something 
resembling a grotto, which enjoying in the midst of summer-heats its 
own natural coolness, neither admits nor wants the refreshment of exter- 
nal breezes. After you have passed both these porticos, at the end of 
the dining-room stands a third, which as the day is more or less ad- 



204j gems of latin poetry. [Ch. 

vanced, serves either for winter or summer use. It leads to two different 
apartments, one containing four chambers, the other three, which enjoy 
by turns both sun and shade. In the front of these agreeable buildings 
lies a very spacious hippodrome, entirely open in the middle, by which 
means the eye, upon your first entrance, takes in its whole extent at one 
view. It is encompassed on every side with plane-trees covered with 
ivy, so that while their heads flourish with their own green, their bodies 
enjoy a borrowed verdure ; and thus the ivy twining round the trunk and 
branches, spreads from tree to tree, and connects them together. Be- 
tween each plane-tree are planted box-trees, and behind these, bay-trees, 
which blend their shade with that of the planes. This plantation, forming 
a strait boundary on both sides of the hippodrome, bends at the far- 
ther end into a semicircle, which being set round and sheltered with 
cypress-trees, varies the prospect, and casts a deep and more gloomy 
shade ; while the inward circular walks (for there are several) enjoying 
an open exposure, are perfumed with roses, and correct by a very pleasing 
contrast the coolness of the shade with the warmth of the sun. Having 
passed through these several winding alleys, you enter a strait walk, 
which breaks out into a variety of others, divided off by box-hedges. In 
one place you have a little meadow ; in another the box is cut into a 
thousand different forms ; sometimes into letters, expressing the name of 
the master ; sometimes that of the artificer : whilst here and there little 
obelisks rise intermixed alternately with fruit-trees : when on a sudden, 
in the midst of this elegant regularity, you are surprised with an imita- 
tion of the negligent beauties of rural nature ; in the centre of which lies 
a spot surrounded with a knot of dwarf plane-trees. Beyond these is a 
walk interspersed with the smooth and twining acanthus, where the trees 
are also cut into a variety of names and shapes. At the upper end is 
an alcove of white marble, shaded with vines, supported by four small 
Carystian pillars. From this bench the water gushing through several 
little pipes, as if it were pressed out by the weight of the persons who 
repose themselves upon it, falls into a stone cistern underneath, from 
whence it is received into a fine polished marble basin, so artfully con- 
trived, that it is always full without ever overflowing. When I sup here, 
this basin serves for a table, the larger sort of dishes being placed round 
the margin, while the smaller ones swim about in the form of little vessels 
and water-fowl. Corresponding to this, is a fountain which is inces- 
santly emptying and filling; for the water which it throws up a great 
height, falling back again into it, is by means of two openings returned as 
fast as it is received. Fronting the alcove (and which reflects as great 
an ornament to it, as it borrows from it) stands a summer-house of 
exquisite marble, whose doors project and open into a green inclosure ; 
as from its upper and lower windows the eye is presented with a variety 
of different verdures. Next to this is a little private closet (which though 
it seems distinct, may be laid into the same room) furnished with a 
couch ; and notwithstanding it has windows on every side, yet it enjoys 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 205 

a very agreeable gloominess, by means of a spreading vine which climbs 
to the top, and entirely overshades it. Here you may lie and fancy 
yourself in a wood, with this difference only, that you are not exposed to 
the weather ; in this place a fountain also rises and instantly disappears : 
in different quarters are disposed several marble seats, which serve no less 
than the summer-house, as so many rehefs after one is wearied with 
walking. Near each seat is a little fountain ; and throughout the whole 
hippodrome several small rills rim murmuring along, wheresoever the 
hand of art thought proper to conduct them, watering here and there 
different spots of verdure, and in their progress refreshing the whole. . . . 
"I have now informed you why I prefer my Tuscan villa to those which 
I possess at Tusculum, Tiber, and Prseneste. Besides the advantages 
already mentioned, I here enjoy a more profound retirement, as I am at 
a farther distance from the business of the town, and the interruption of 
troublesome avocations. All is calm and composed ; which contributes, 
no less than its clear and imclouded sky, to that health of body and 
cheerfulness of mind which I particularly enjoy here: both of which I 
keep in proper exercise by study and hunting. And indeed there is no 
place which agrees better with all my family in general ; I am sure, at 
least, I have not yet lost one (and I speak it with the sentiments I ought) 
of all those I brought with me hither : and may the gods continue that 
happiness to me, and that honour to my villa ! Farewell." 

Besides these villas, Pliny, Lib. ix. Ep. 7, gives an account of two of 
his villas at Baise, one commanding a view of the lake from an eminence, 
the other situated on its margin ; the first he called Tragedy, the other, 
Comedy. Pliny describes his mode of passing his time at his villas, in 
Lib. IX. Ep. 36 and 40. In Lib. m. Ep. 5, he describes the manner in 
which the elder Pliny passed his time. 



X. 

A TIBURTINE VILLA. 



Cernere facundi Tibur glaciale Vopisci 

Si quis, et inserto geminos Aniene penates ; 

Aut potuit sociae commercia noscere ripas, 

Certantesque sibi dominum defendere villas. 

Ilium nee calido latravit Sirius astro. 

Nee gravis aspexit Nemees frondentis alumnus. 

Talis hyems teetis, frangunt sie improba solem 

Frigora, Pisaeumque domus non sestuat annum. 



206 GEMS OF LATIN POETHY. [Ch. 

Visa manu tenera tectum scripsisse Voluptas. 
Tunc Venus Idaliis unxit fastigia succis, 
Permulsitque comas, blandumque reliquit honorem 
Sedibus, et volucres vetuit discedere natos. 
O longum memoranda dies ! quae mente reporto 
Gaudia ? quam lassos per tot miracula visus ? 
Ingenium quam mite solo ? quss forma beatis 
Arte manus concessa locis ? non largius usquam 
Indulsit natura sibi, nemora alta citatis 
Incubuere vadis, fallax responsat imago 
Frondibus, et longas eadem fugit umbra per undas. 
Ipse A.nien (miranda fides) infraque superque 
Saxeus hie tumidam rabiem, spumosaque ponit 
Murmura, ceu placidi veritus turbare Vopisci, 
Pieriosque dies, et habentes carmina somnos. 
Littus utrumque domi : nee te mitissimus amnis 
Dividit ; alternas seruant praetoria ripas 
Non externa sibi, fluviumque obstare queruntur. 
Sestiacos nunc fama sinus, pelagusque natatum 
Jactet, et audaci junctos delphinas Ephosbo. 
Hie a3terna quies, nullis hie jura procellis, 
Nusquam fervor aquis : datur hie transmittere visus, 
Et voces, et psene manus ; sic Chalcida fluctus 
Expellunt fluvii, sic dissociata profundo 
Brutia Sicanium circumspicit ora Pelorum. 
Quid primum, mediumve canam ? quo fine quiescam ? 
Auratasne trabes ? an Mauros undique postes ? 
An picturata lucentia marmora vena 
Mirer ? an emissas per cuncta cubilia lymphas ? 
Hue oculis, hue mente trahor ; venerabile dicam 
Lucorum senium ? te quae vada fluminis infra 
Cernis ? an ad sylvas quae respicis, aula, jacentes ? 
Qua tibi tota quies, offensaque turbine nullo 
Nox silet, et nigros imitantia murmura somnos. 
An quae graminea suscepta crepidine fumant 
Balnea, et impositum ripis algentibus ignem ? 
Quique vapor if eris junctus fornacibus annis 
Bidet anhelantes vicino flumine Nymphas? 
Vidi artes, veterumque manus, variisque metalla 
Viva modis : labor est auri memorare figuras, 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 207 

Aut ebur, aut dignas digitis contingere gemmas. 
Quicquid et argento primum, vel in sere Myronis 
Lusit, et enormes manus est experta Colossos. 
Dum vagor aspeetu, visusque per omnia duco, 
Calcabam nee opinus opes ; nam splendor ab alto 
Defluus, et nitidum references aera testae 
Monstravere solum, varias ubi pieta per artes 
Gaudet humus, suberantque novis Asarota figuris. 
Expavere gradus ; quid nunc ingentia mirer ? 
Aut quid parti tis distantia tecta triehoris ? 

Si la curiosite de quelqu'un le porte a voir le frais 

sejour de Tivoli, ou demeure I'eloquent Vopiscus, et les 

deux Chasteaux que separe le Teverone, il pourra con- 

noistre la liaison des deux rives amies, et I'un et I'autre 

appartement qui s'efForce a Tenvi de defFendre son Maistre 

des incommoditez du cliaud, quand le Chien celeste nous 

persecute de ses abbois, et que la constellation du Lion de 

Nemee nous regarde pour nous mettre en sueur, tant 

I'Hyver se plaist en ce lieu la. Le froid y rompt la force 

des rayons du Soleil ; et jamais on ne s'y appercoit de cette 

ardeur boiiillante qui regne dans les campagnes de Pise, 

quand on celebre les jeux Olympiques. On diroit que la 

Volupte mesmes a peint cette maison de sa main delicate : 

que Venus y a repandu ses parfums d'Idalie, qu'elle en a 

peigne toutes les avenues ; qu'elle Pa honoree quelques- 

fois de son sejour: et qu'elle a defendu a ses Enfans qui 

sont si legers de I'abandonner jamais. O que je me sou- 

viendray long-temps du jour que je vis une si belle maison ! 

Quelles furent les agreables images que j'en rapportay en 

mon esprit ? De combien de miracles mes yeux se trou- 

verent-ils remplis ? Que ce climat est doux ! et que I'art 

en ce lieul-a se trouve heureusement joint aux beautez de 

la Nature ! Certes elle ne paroist point ailleurs si liberale 

de ses dons. Les hauts arbres se tiennent doucement sus- 

pendus sur le canal du fleuve. L'image trompeuse des 

feiiillages s'y represente dans I'eau, et I'ombre s'enfuit avec 

elle durant un fort long espace. Le Teverone qui est 

pierreux au dessus et au dessous, (chose presque incroy- 

able) quitte en ce lieu la ses murmures et son impetuosite, 



208 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

comme s'il avoit peur de troubler le repos du paisible 
Vopiscus passant les jours et les nuicts a mediter quelque 
bel ouvrage ou chef-d'ouvre de Poesie. L'un et Tautre 
bord du doux fleuve se trouve dans le logis, et il ne s'y 
divise point, non plus que Fedifice qui se joint sur les deux 
rives par I'arcade d'un Pont ;,. de sorte qu'on ne scauroit se 
plaindre que le fleuve le separe. Que la Renommee se 
glorifie maintenant de ce qu'elle a conte du detroit de 
Seste, de la Mer traversee a la nage, et des Daufins qui 
favoriserent autrefois I'audace d'un jeune garcon. II se 
trouve icy un eternel repos. Les tempestes n'ont point 
icy de pouvoir ; II n'y a point de colere des eaux. La 
veue s'y porte aisement d'une rive a I'autre, on s'y entend 
parler, et Ton s'y touche presque de la main. Ainsi les 
flots de I'Euripe separent Chalcis de la Beotie. Ainsi la 
Brutze separee de la Sicile par un detroit de Mer, void le 
Promontoire de Pelore. Par ou commenceray-je a parler 
d'une si belle chose ? Et par ou cesseray-je d'en parler ? 
En decouvriray-je les poutres dorees, ou les lambris d'yvoire 
et de cedre ? Ou admireray-je plustost les marbres luisans 
qui representent tant de figures difFerentes ? Ou les eaux 
qui rejaillissent autour des chambres pour les rafraischir ? 
Ce beau lieu arreste mes yeux et toutes mes pensees. 
Diray-je quelque chose de la venerable vieillesse de ces 
bois sacrez ? De toy, grand Salon qui vois la riviere au 
dessous de tes fenestres ? Ou de cet autre qui regarde les 
bois, ou regne le silence ; de sorte que le repos et la nuict 
y sont sans trouble avec un doux murmure qui n'a pas 
plus de violence, que celuy du Sommeil? Ou parleray-je 
des Bains qui fument le long de la coste tapissee de ver- 
dure ? Parleray je du feu qui se fait sentir aupres de la 
glace, ou le fleuve couvert par des voutes fumeuses se 
mocque des Nymphes qui se mettent hors d'haleine dans 
le canal de son voisin. J'y ay vu des ouvrages artistes de 
la main des Anciens, et des metaux animez de manieres 
diverses. J'aurois de la piene a raconter toutes les figures 
que j 'ay veues dans For. Je ne sgaurois representer ny les 
yvoires, ny les pierres precieuses dignes d'estre portees aux 
doigts, qui s'y offrent aux yeux des regardans ; ny tout ce 
que la main de Miron y a fait en or et en cuivre par des 



I 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 209 

jeux d'esprit, ou il a aussi eprouve son Industrie sur de 
prodigieux Colosses de cuivre. Tandis qu'en me prome- 
nant, je portois ma veue de tons costez, je marchois sans y 
penser sur des tresors de grand prix : ear la splendeur qui 
tomboit d'enhaut, et les eoquillages polis qui representoient 
parfaitement la nettete de I'air, montroient la partie d'enbas, 
ou le plancher sembloit se glorifier de toutes les figures 
agreables, dont il estoit diversifie, quoy qu'elles fussent 
mises sous les pieds, et difficiles a ballier. Je n'osois 
marcher sur un pave si precieux. Apres cela comment 
est-ce que je pourrois marquer mon etonnement touchant 
les grandes choses ? Ou de quels termes me pourrois-je 
servir pour depeindre les trois grands corps de logis de ce 
rare bastiment ? 

The version is in the antiquated French of Marolles. The Silvce of 
Statins, far more interesting, it is conceived, to a modern reader than his 
Thebaid, have never been translated into English. Statius's description of 
the Tiburtine Villa is extended to fifty more lines. And his Silvce contain 
a description in a hundred and fifty-four lines of a Surrentine villa be- 
longing to Pollius. 

Tivoli is rendered classic ground by several delightful associations of 
description and sentiment in the Odes of Horace, being the spot which 
he must have often frequented in his visits to Maecenas, and which he 
longed for as the retreat of his old age, if, indeed, he had not a villa 
there, which is matter of controversy. Catullus also wrote a poetical 
letter of thanks to his Tiburtine Villa for recruiting his spirits after suf- 
fering from the effects of a tedious recitation at Rome. He tells his villa, 
that every one who wanted to plague him called it a Sabine Villa, but 
all who courted his favour called it a Tiburtine Villa. Here Msecenas 
had a villa, to which he repaired by the advice of his physician, in order 
that he might overcome the sleeplessness, which was a principal symptom of 
his malady, by the distant sounds of falling water. The ruins of Hadrian's 
villa at Tivoli have been a mine of treasures of ancient art. The peculi- 
arities of the scenery at Tivoli have been described by Gray in a letter to 
West. The following description is by Eustace : 

** But the pride and ornament of Tivoli are still, as anciently, the fall 
and the windings of the Anio, now Teverone. This river having mean- 
dered from its source through the vales of Sabina, glides gently through 
Tivoli, till coming to the brink of a rock it precipitates itself in one mass 
down the steep, and then boiling for an instant in its narrow channel, 
rushes headlong through a chasm in the rock into the caverns below. 
The first fall may be seen from the windows of the inn or from the 

14 



210 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

temple ; but it appears to the greatest adrantage from the bridge thrown 
over the narrow channel a little below it. From this bridge also you may 
look down into the shattered rock, and observe far beneath the writhings 
and agitation of the stream struggling through its rocky prison. To view 
the second fall, or descent into the cavern, we went down through a 
garden by a winding path into the narrow dell, through which the river 
flows after the cascade, and placing ourselves in front of the cavern, be- 
held the Anio in two immense sheets tumbling through two different 
apertures, shaking the mountain in its fall, and filling aU the cavities 
around with spray and uproar." 



XI. 

DOMITIAN'S FISHPOND. 

Bajano procul a lacu monemus, 
Piscator, fuge, ne nocens recedas. 
Saeris piscibus hse natantur undae, 
Qui norunt Dominum, manumque lambunt 
Illam, qua nihil est in orbe majus. 
Quid, quod nomen habent, et ad magistri 
Vocem quisque sui venit citatus ? 
Hoc quondam Libys impius profundo, 
Dum prsedam calamo tremente ducit, 
Eaptis luminibus repente csecus 
Captum non potuit videre piscem : 
Et nunc sacrilegos perosus hamos, 
Bajanos sedet ad lacus rogator. 

Fisherman! I caution you to hasten away from the 
Baian lake, lest you depart with a load of crime. The 
fishes that swim in these waters are sacred. They know 
their Lord, they kiss the hand than which there is nothing 
more powerful in the whole world. Would you believe it 
possible, it is a fact that these fishes have all proper names, 
and when absence is called, (a word to Etonians) every fish 
answers to his name ? A certain African had once the 
temerity to fish in this pond ; but whilst he was dragging 



Ill] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 211 

his prey out of the water, he was struck with sudden blind- 
ness, and never saw what he had taken. The man to this 
day goes on execrating the sacrilegious hook, as he sits 
close to this very Baian lake imploring alms. 

It is probable that Martial alludes to some wretch whose eyes may 
have been put out by order of Domitian for fishing in his pond, and who 
may have been afterwards compelled to act the part of a scarecrow. The 
tractability of fishes under the tuition of the Romans, is noticed in Mar- 
tial's description of the Formian Villa in this collection, ^lian, in his 
chapters upon Animals, relates several remarkable anecdotes of Roman 
fish, as particularly a lamprey, belonging to Crassus, which was adorned 
with female ornaments, and honoured with a splendid funeral. Pliny 
relates some wonderful particulars concerning the familiarity between a 
Dolphin and a boy, who used to swim on the fish's back. The author 
has in his possession a Tarentine coin, about the period b. c. 400, repre- 
senting Taras, son of Neptune, on a Dolphin's back. The story of Arion 
seems to have reference to a tradition of this nature. Shakspere applies 
the tradition to the Dauphin of France, and the designs of Catharine de 
Medicis to marry him to Queen Elizabeth, a passage very curious in an 
historical point of view. It occurs in the Midsummer Night's Dream : 
Since once I sat upon a promontory, 
And heard a Mermaid on a Dolphin's back. 

The Brahmins of India have established a considerable familiarity 
with the finny tribe, and with pet crocodiles, in some of. the sacred ponds 
attached to their pagodas. 



XII. 
THE HOT SPRINGS NEAR CICERO'S ACADEMY. 

Quo tua, Romanse vindex clarissime linguas, 

Silva loco melius surgere jussa viret, 
Atque Academise celebratam nomine villam 

Nunc reparat cultu sub potiore Yetus : 
Hie etiam adparent lymphsB non ante repertse, 

Languida quae infuso lumina rore levant. 
Nimirum locus ipse sui Ciceronis honori 

Hoc dedit, hac fontes cum patefecit ope, 
Ut quoniam totum legitur sine fine per orbem, 

Sint plures, oculis quae medeantur, aqu8B. 

14—2 



212 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Father of Eloquence in Eome ! 

The Groves that once pertained to thee, 
Now with a fresher verdure bloom 

Around thy fam'd Academy. 

Vetus at length this favoured seat 
Hath with a tasteful care restored ; 

And newly at thy lov'd retreat 

A gushing fount its stream has poured. 

These waters cure an aching sight ; 

And thus the Spring that bursts to view 
Through future ages shall requite 

The fame this spot from Tully drew. 

The Latin lines are interesting as having been written by a freedman 
of Cicero. The elder Pliny, in his Natural History, quotes the above 
verses with applause, and mentions the occasion of them, which was the 
bursting forth of a fountain, very wholesome for the eyes, near Cicero's 
villa, called the Academy, shortly after his death. The English version, 
by Elton, does not well express the point in the original, that a remedy 
for the eyes was a gift of nature very appropriate to the place whence 
had emanated writings on which so many eyes throughout the world were 
poring. 

Addison, in his Travels in Italy, mentions that the locality contains 
many baths in which sulphur abounds ; and that there is scarce a disease 
that has not a bath adapted to it. One bath still was called the Bath 
of Cicero. Some writers reckon up eighteen villas of Cicero, besides 
little inns or baiting-places. Dr Middleton.has given a description of 
Cicero's principal villas. The Tusculan was the nearest to Rome, and 
the most adorned, for here Cicero spent the greatest share of his leisure. 
His best collection of books was in his villa at Antium, about thirty miles 
from Rome. His villa called the Academy, mentioned in the text, was 
built after the plan of the Academy at Athens, with a grove and por- 
tico for philosophical conferences. Here Cicero composed the last of his 
dialogues, that upon Fate ; and here afterwards Hadrian died. 



J 



m.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 213 

XIII. 
THE PO, WITH ITS MYTHOLOGY. 

• — nie caput placidis sublime fluentis 

Extulit, et totis lucem spargentia ripis 

Aurea roranti micuerunt cornua vultu. 

Non illi madidum vulgaris Arundine crinem 

Velat honos, rami caput umbravere virentes 

Heliadum, totisque fluunt electra capillis. 

Palla tegit latos humeros, curruque paterno 

Intextus Phaeton glaucos incendit amictus : 

Fultaque sub gremio cselatis nobilis astris 

^thorium probat urna decus. Namque omnia luctus 

Argumenta sui Titan signavit Olympo, 

Mutatumque senem plumis, et fronde sorores, 

Et fluvium, nati qui vulnera lavit anheli. 

Stat gelidis Auriga plagis, vestigia fratris 

Germanae servant Hyades, Cycnique sodalis 

Lacteus extentas aspergit cireulus alas. 

Stellifer Eridanus sinuatis fluctibus errans, 

Clara noti convexa rigat. 

His head above the floods he gently rear'd, 
And as he rose his golden horns appear' d, 
That on the forehead shone divinely bright, 
And o'er the banks diffused a yellow light : 
No interwoven reeds a garland made, 
To hide his brows within the vulgar shade. 
But poplar wreaths around his temples spread, 
And tears of amber trickled down his head : 
A spacious veil from his broad shoulders flew, 
That set the unhappy Phaeton to view : 
The flaming chariot and the steeds it show'd, 
And the whole fable in the mantle glowed : 
Beneath his arm an urn supported lies 
With stars embellish'd, and fictitious skies. 
For Titan, by the mighty loss dismay'd. 
Among the Heav'ns th' immortal fact display'd, 



214 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Lest the remembrance of his grief should fail, 
And in the constellations wrote his tale. 
A swan in memory of Cycnus shines ; 
The mourning sisters weep in watery signs ; 
The burning chariot, and the charioteer. 
In bright Bootes and his wain appear : 
Whilst in a track of light the waters run. 
That washed the body of his blasted son. 

The description is from Claudian. Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and Frasca- 
toro, have immortalized the river Po. It has been called the king of 
Italian rivers ; it receives thirty tributary streams, includes in its windings 
a course of three hundred miles, and bathes the walls of fifty towns and 
cities. As in the time of Claudian, the principal ornament of the banks of 
the Po, according to Eustace, consists of groves of forest-trees, that shade 
its margin, and as they hang over it, and sometimes bathe their branches 
in its waves, enliven it by the reflection of their thick and verdant foliage. 
Among these, the poplars, into which the sisters of Phaeton are fabled to 
have been metamorphosed, are predominant, and by their height and 
spreading form add considerably to the beauty of the scenery. Neither 
Addison nor Eustace make any mention of swans, though a classical 
traveller might be supposed to strain his eyes to search in the Po for a 
representative of Cycnus. 



XIV. 

THE PO FROZEN. 



Qui Phaetonteos extinxit plurimus ignes 

Pene gelu absumptis nunc Padus aret aquis, 
Atque repentinos Borealia frigora pontes 

Struxere, et sicco pervia lympha pedi est. 
Quaque rates variis oneratse mercibus ibant, 

Nunc plaustris junctos cernimus ire boves. 
Ad nova concurret spectacula vulgus, et audax 

Turba per insuetum fluminis errat iter. 
Mira quidem sunt hsec ; sed te mirabile Princeps 

Optime, nil sotas protulit uUa magis. 

The Po which extinguished the conflagration kindled 
by Phaeton is now dry by means of the Ice which has 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 215 

bound all its waters. — The Northern frosts have suddenly 
constructed bridges across it, and it may now be traversed 
with a dry foot. — Where ships laden with merchandizes 
sailed through the waters, now you may see oxen drawing 
the waggons to which they are yoked. The vulgar crowd 
rush to behold the novel spectacle, and take a pride in 
shewing how boldly they can walk over the top of a river. 
—These phenomena are miraculous indeed; but the ex- 
ceeding good Prince of this land is a more astonishing 
miracle even than the congelation of the Po. 

Among the rare tracts published by the Percy Society is a collection 
relative to the freezings of the Thames, with engravings and songs. There 
is extant a paper, in which Charles II. and his family printed their names 
on the Thames, on January 31, 1684. It appears that from the beginning 
of December, 1683, to the 4th of February, there was a street of booths 
on the Thames. Like phenomena occurred previously in the years 1092, 
1281, 1664, 1608, 1675, and subsequently in 1715, 1739, 1814, which last 
continued from the 27th of December to the 5th of February. The frost of 
A.D. 1675 is the subject of a poem in the Musce Anglicanoe, entitled Thamesis 
Vivictus : it commemorates the boihng and roasting on the Thames : 

Undantia flammis 

Ordine ahena locant, verubusque immania figunt 

Terga boum. 
Gay, in his Trivia, thus commemorates the freezure of 1715, which 
lasted from the latter part of November to the 9th of February : 

O roving Muse ! recal that wondrous year. 

When winter reigned in bleak Britannia's air; 

When hoary Thames, with frosted oziers crown'd, 

Was three long moons in icy fetters bound. 

Wheels o'er the harden'd waters smoothly glide. 

And rase with whiten'd tracks the slippery tide : 

Here the fat cook piles high the blazing fij'e, 

And scarce the spit can turn the steer entire. 

Booths sudden hide the Thames, long streets appear, 

And numerous games proclaim the crowded fair; 

Doll every day had walked these treacherous roads ; 

Her neck grew warpt beneath autumnal loads 

Of various fruit ; she now a basket bore ; 

That head, alas ! shall basket bear no more. 

The cracking crystal yields ; she sinks, she dies, 

Her head, chopt off from her lost shoulders flies ; 

Pippins she cried ; but death her voice confounds ; 

And pip — pip — ^pip — along the ice resounds. 



216 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Addison, in the Spectator, No. 247, alludes to the tongue of the apple- 
woman, said to have cried " pippins " after her head was cut off. It is a 
paper upon the subject of female tongues, where he cites a description 
from Ovid's Metamorphoses, of the tongue of a woman being cut out and 
thrown upon the ground, when " it could not forbear muttering even in 
that posture.'* 



XV. 

BUILDING ACCOUNT BETWEEN DOMITIAN AND JUPITER. 

Quantum jam superis, Caesar, cceloque dedisti, 

Si repetas, et si creditor esse velis ; 
Grandis in aethero licet auctio fiat Olympo, 

Coganturque Dei vendere quidquid habent : 
Conturbabit Atlas, et non erit uncia tota, 

Decidat tecum qua pater ipse Deum. 
Pro Capitolinis quid enim tibi solvere templis, 

Quid pro Tarpejse frondis honore potest ? 
Quid pro culminibus geminis Matrona Tonantis ? 

Pallada prsetereo : res agit ilia tuas. 
Quid loquar Alciden, Phoebumque, piosque Laconas ? 

Addita quid Latio Flavia templa polo ? 
Exspectes, et sustineas, Auguste, necesse est : 

Nam tibi quod solvat, non habet area Jovis. 

If thou shouldst challenge what is due to thee 
From Heav'n, and Heaven's creditor would be : 
If public sale should be cried through the spheres, 
And the Gods sell all to satisfy arrears, 
Atlas will bankrupt prove, nor one sous be 
Reserved for Jupiter to treat with thee. 
"What can'st thou for the Capitol receive ? 
Or for Tarpeian fane's immortal wreath ? 
Or what wiU Juno give thee for her shrine ? 
Pallas I pass, she waits on thee and thine. 
Alcides, Phoebus, Pollux, I pass by, 
And Flavia's Temple neighbouring to the sky. 
Caesar thou must forbear, and trust the Heaven, 
Jove's chest has not enough to make all even. 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 217 

Suetonius mentions that Domitian rebuilt the Capitol, which had been 
destroyed by fire, for the third time, and that he restored other edifices, 
but all in his own name, without any mention of the original founders : 
that he Hkewise erected a new Temple in the Capitol to Jupiter Custos, 
and a Forum, a Stadium, an Odeum, and Naumachia, and the Temple of 
the Flavian family. To crown the pyramid of magnificent edifices that 
adorned the Capitoline Hill, rose the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, on a 
hundred steps, supported by a hundred pillars, adorned with the plunder 
of the world. In the centre of the temple, with Juno on his left side, and 
Minerva on his right, sat Jupiter the Thunderer, on a throne of gold, in 
one hand wielding the sceptre of the Roman Empire, and, in the other, 
grasping a thunderbolt. The threshold of the temple was of bronze, the 
valves of its portals of gold. The pediment, the sides, and the summit of 
the roof, presented images of gods, heroes, horses and chariots, the Roman 
Eagle, and its attendant Victory, all of bronze, silver, or gold. The gilding 
alone is related to have cost Domitian 12,000 talents ; wherefore Plutarch 
observed of that Emperor, that he was like Midas, desirous of turning 
every thing into gold. Of the ancient gloiy of the Capitol, nothing is now 
remaining but the solid foundation, which, according to the prediction of 
the poet, continues immoveable, Capitoli immobile saxum. 

Perhaps no epigram, even of Martial, exceeds that in the text for 
impious adulation. Waller's verses on the re-building of Somerset 
House, and of St Paul's, contain bold flights of English adulation in the 
same line of sycophancy, in regard to royal architecture. Of the first, 
Waller writes to the Queen : 

But what new mine this work supplies ? 

Can such a pile from ruin rise ? 

This, like the first creation, shows, 

As if at your command it rose. 

Of St Paul's, as rebuilt after the fire of London, he sings : 
The Sun which riseth to salute the Quire 
Already finish'd, setting shall admire 
How private bounty could so far extend ; 
The King built all, but Charles the western end : 
So proud a fabric to devotion given. 
At once it threatens and obliges heaven. 

Waller's compliments to Charles II. on his improvements in St James's 
Park are in the same style, but varied by an eulogy on the King's skill at 
trap-ball : 

No sooner has he toucht the flying ball. 

But 'tis already more than half the Mall ; 

And such a fury from his arm has got, 

As from a smoking culverin 't were shot ! 



218 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XVI. 

THE PALATINE MOUNT. 

Ecce Palatine crevit reverentia monti 

Non alium certe decuit rectoribus orbis 
Esse larem, nulloque magis se colle potestas 
JEstimat, et summi sentit fastigia juris. 
AttoUens apicem subjectis regia rostris, 
Tot circum delubra videt, tantisque Deorum 
Cingitur excubiis. Juvat infra tecta Tonantis 
Cernere Tarpeia pendentes rupe Gigantes, 
Caelatasque fores, mediisque volantia signa 
Nubibus, et densum stipantibus aethera templis, 
iEraque vestitis numerosa puppe columnis 
Consita, subnixasque jugis immanibus sedes, 
Naturam cumulante manu ; spoliisque micantes 
Innumeros arcus. Acies stupet igne metalli, 
Et eircumfuso trepidans obtunditur auro. 

To Palatine's high mount see homage flows ! , . . . 

No other residence was ever made 

For those whose pow'rs the universe pervade ; 

Such noble dignity no hill displays, 

Nor equal magnitude of empire sways. 

The lofty palace tow'ring to the sky, 

Beholds below the courts of justice lie ; 

The num'rous temples round, and ramparts strong, 

That to th' immortal deities belong ; 

The Thund'rer's domes ; suspended giant race 

Upon the summit of Tarpeian space ; 

The sculptur'd doors, in air the banners spread ; 

The num'rous tow'rs that hide in clouds their head ; 

The columns girt with naval prows of brass ; 

The various buildings rais'd on terreous mass ; 

The works of Nature joining human toils. 

And arcs of triumph deck'd with splendid spoils. 

The glare of metal strikes upon the sight. 

And sparkling gold o'erpow'rs with dazzling light. 



m.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 219 

The original is by Claudian, the translation by Hawkins; another 
English Torsion is given by Addison, in his Travels in Italy. Eustace 
writes : " We then ascended the Palatine Mount. This hill, the nursery 
of infant Rome, and finally the residence of imperial grandeur, presents 
now two solitary villas, and a convent. Its numerous temples, its palaces, 
its porticos, and its libraries, once the glory of Rome, and the admiration 
of the Universe, are now mere heaps of ruins, so shapeless and scattered, 
that the antiquary and architect are at a loss to discover their site, their 
plans, or their elevation. Of that wing of the imperial palace which 
looked towards the west, some apartments remain vaulted, and of fine 
proportions, but so deeply buried in ruins as to be now subterranean.*' 



XVII. 
COLISEUM. 



Barbara Pyramidum sileat miracula Memphis, 

Assiduus jactet nee Babylona labor ; 
Nee Triviae templo moUes laudentur honores, 

Dissimuletque deum cornibus ara frequens ; 
Aere nee vaeuo pendentia Mausolea, 

Laudibus immodieis Cares in astra ferant. 
Omnis Caesareo cedat labor Amphitheatro : 

Unum prae cunctis fama loquatur opus. 

Why sing the wonders of th' Egyptian shore ? 

Let far-fam'd Babylon be prais'd no more, 

Let not Ionia vaunt Diana's fane, 

Nor Libya of her horned-God be vain. 

Nor let the Carian town extol so high 

Its Mausoleum, hanging in the sky ; 

In Caesar's Amphitheatre are shown 

These rival glories all combined in one : 

Let Eame henceforth her clam'rous tongue confine 

To sing the beauties of that dome divine. 

The Colosseum was commenced by the Emperor Vespasian, and 
finished by Titus. The opening of it was celebrated by the slaughter 
of 9000 wild beasts in the arena. It was capable of containing about 
87,000 spectators ; it covers altogether five acres of ground. Where it is 
perfect, the exterior is an hundred and sixty feet high. (Concerning the 



220 GEMS OF LATEST POETRY. [Ch. 

modern excayations, see Mr Whiteside's Vicissitudes of the Eternal City.) 
Claudian thus describes a wild beast newly brought from the woods, and 
making its first appearance in a full amphitheatre : 
tJt fera quae nuper montes amisit avitos, 
Altorumque exul nemorum, damnatur arensD 
Muneribus, commota ruit; yir murmure contra 
Hortatur, nixusque genu venabula tendit ; 
Ilia pavet strepitus, cuneosque erecta theatri 
Despicit, et tanti miratur sibila vulgi. 

So rushes on his foe the grisly bear, 
That, banish'd from the hills and bushy brakes. 
His old hereditary haunts forsakes. 
Condemn'd the cruel rabble to delight, 
His angry keeper goads him to the fight. 
Bent on his knee : the savage glares around, 
Scar'd with the mighty crowd's promiscuous sound ; 
Then, rearing on his hinder paws, retires. 
And the vast hissing multitude admires. 
Martial has a whole book of epigrams concerning the diversions of the 
amphitheatre — as Europa carried to the sky on a bull's back, the sports of 
a lion and a hare, the elephant which fell on his knees to the Emperor, 
(notwithstanding Lord Coke's comparison between that animal and the 
unbending parliament-man, the subject of one of Swift's poems), the 
wild-beast, that brought forth young at the moment of receiving its 
death-wound, (an epigram which furnished Lord Bacon with a compli- 
ment to King James), and the lion that killed its keeper. The ancient 
story of the meeting on the arena between Androcles and his old friend 
the lion, whom he had cured from a wound by a thorn in Africa, is related 
in the Guardian. 

The Colosseum has been celebrated by several English poets. Addi- 
son writes : 

An amphitheatre's amazing height 
Here fills my eye with terror and delight ; 
That, on its public shows, unpeopled Rome, 
And held, uncrowded, nations in its womb. 
And Lord Byron : 

But here, where murder breathed her bloody steam ; 
And here, where buzzing nations choked the ways. 
And roar'd or murmur'd like a mountain stream 
Dashing or winding as its torrent strays ; 
Here, where the Roman million's blame or praise, 
Was death or life, the playthings of a crowd. 
My voice sounds much — and fall the stars' faint rays 
On the arena void — seats crush'd — walls bow'd — 
And galleries, where my steps seem echoes strangely loud. 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 221 

A ruin — yet what ruin ! from its mass 
Walls, palaces, half-cities, have been reared ; 
Yet oft the enormous skeleton ye pass 
And marvel where the spoil could have appear'd. 
Hath it indeed been plunder'd, or but clear'd ? 
Alas ! developed, opens the decay, 
When the colossal fabric's form is near'd : 
It will not bear the brightness of the day. 
Which streams too much on all years, man, have reft away. 

But when the rising moon begins to climb 
Its topmost arch, and gently pauses there ; 
When the stars twinkle through the loops of time, 
And the low night-breeze waves along the air 
The garland-forest, which the gray walls wear. 
Like laurels on the bald first Caesar's head ; 
When the light shines serene but doth not glare, 
Then in this magic circle raise the dead : 
Heroes have trod this spot — 'tis on their dust ye tread. 

" While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand ; 

When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall ; 

And when Rome falls — the world." From our own land 

Thus spake the pilgrims o'er this mighty wall 

In Saxon times. 



XVIII. 

NERO'S GOLDEN HOUSE, TITUS'S BATHS, AND CLAUDIAN'S 

PORTICO. 

Hie, ubi sidereus propius videt astra Colossus, 

Et crescunt media pegmata celsa via ; 
Invidiosa feri radiabant atria regis, 

Unaque jam tota stabat in urbe domus. 
Hie, ubi conspicui venerabilis Amphitheatri 

Erigitur moles, stagna Neronis erant. 
Hie, ubi miramur velocia munera, thermas ; 

Abstulerat miseris tecta superbus ager. 
Claudia difFusas ubi porticus explicat umbras. 

Ultima pars aulae deficientis erat. 
Reddita Roma sibi est ; et sunt, te praeside, Caesar, 

Delieiae populi, quae fuerant domini. 



222 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Here, where that high Coloss the stars surveys, 

And lofty engines swell up in the ways, 

The envied Courts of Nero shined : And one, 

One only House this City filled alone. 

Here, where the Amphitheatre's vast pile 

Is now erected, were his Pools erewhile. 

Where we admire the Baths, that swift-form'd gift, 

The proud field from poor men their dwellings shrift. • 

Where Claudia's Walk extends its ample shade, 

Was erst the postern of his palace made. 

Rome's to itself returned ; and in thy name. 

What once was Caesar's, now the People claim. 

The translation, a little modified, is by Fletcher ; he construed velocia, 
running; the epithet seems to relate to the circumstance, mentioned by 
Suetonius, of the expeditious formation of Titus's Baths. 

As Martial relates, the Colisseum covered only a portion of the site of 
Nero's palace, and its pleasure-grounds. This palace, from the gold 
which shone in profusion on every side of it, was called (Domus Aurea), 
the Golden House. Suetonius gives the following details of this enor- 
mous edifice : " In tne vestibule stood a colossal statue of Nero, one 
hundred and twenty feet in height. There were three porticos, each a 
mile in length, and supported by three rows of pillars. The garden 
resembled a park, and contained an immense piece of water, woods, 
vineyards, pasture-grounds for herds, paddocks for wild beasts. There 
was a lake, on the banks of which rose several edifices that resembled 
towns. In the palace itself the rooms were lined with gold, gems, and 
mother-of-pearl. The ceilings of the dining-rooms were adorned with 
ivory pannels, so contrived as to scatter flowers and shower perfumes on 
the guests. The principal banquetting room revolved upon itself, repre- 
senting the motions of the heavens; the baths were supplied with salt- 
water from the sea, and mineral water from Salfatara." 

With regard to the colossal figure of the Sun, mentioned by Martial, 
this was no other than Nero's colossus of himself, of which Vespasian 
struck off the late Emperor's head, and substituted that of Apollo, encir- 
cled with twelve golden rays. A pasquinade is mentioned by Suetonius 
to have been composed with reference to Nero's golden house : 

Roma domus fiet ; Veios migrate Quirites ! 
Si non et Veios occupat ista domus. 

Rome will be all one House ; to Veii fly ! 

If that House move not thither by and by. 

Titus*s Baths were inferior in extent to those of Caracalla and Dio- 
cletian, but had an advantage over them in being erected before the 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 223 

decay of the arts. They now constitute a subterranean museum, whose 
walls and vaults are adorned with stuccoes perfectly preserred, and 
covered with arabesques and paintings. The group of the Laocoon was 
discovered among the ruins of Titus's Baths, as the Farnese Hercules and 
Farnese Bull were discovered in those of Caracalla. The public baths, 
besides containing spacious halls for bathing, with many hundred marble 
seats, had apartments for reading and recitations, and porticos and gym- 
nasiums for exercise. They were adorned with paintings and statues, and 
surrounded by plantations. Temples were sometimes attached to them. 
Even in the rude age of Lucilius, the business of the bath consisted of 
numerous details: 

Scabor, supplier, desquamor, pumicor, ornor, 

Expolior, pingor. 

I scratch myself, pluck out my superfluous hairs, rub off my scales, 
pmnice my skin, adorn, polish, and paint myself. 

With regard to the Claudian Portico^ Pitiscus in his Lexicon has given 
a complete list of all the Porticos of Rome. Mention of Porticos occurs 
in numerous epigrams of Martial, who describes them as the resorts of 
men of business, and those of literary leisure (Stoics or Peripatetics), of 
loungers, and of supper-hunters. They seem to have resembled in this 
respect our Paul's Walk mentioned in our ancient dramatists and in 
Bishop Hall's Satires, where serjeants-at-law had their pillars, and where 
Duke Humphrey was supposed to have entertained at dinner those who 
could not get invited elsewhere. The Piazza at Covent Garden, when 
theatres flourished in England, partook of the character of a Roman 
portico. A magnificent description is given by Propertius of the open- 
ing of a portico by Augustus called the Palatine Portico, dedicated to 
Apollo. It was supported by pillars of Numidian marble, embellished 
with paintings and statues, and emblazoned with brass and gold. It 
enclosed the library and temple of Apollo so often alluded to by the 
writers of the Augustan age. Groves and fountains were luxuries 
attached to several of the porticos. Paintings of Apelles and Zeuxis 
were afiBxed to the portico of Hercules. That of Gordian, in the Campus 
Martins, was a mile long, and formed of one range of pilasters and four 
of columns : that of Gallienus extended near two miles along the Yia 
Flaminia. The portico mentioned in the text was shaded by a vine of 
extraordinary luxuriance ; probably the prototype of the vine at Hampton 
Court. 



224t GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XIX. 

CONCOURSE OF ALL NATIONS AT ROME. 

Quae tarn seposita est, qusB gens tarn barbara, Caesar, 

Ex qua spectator non sit in urbe tua ? 
Venit ab Orpheo cultor Rhodopeius Haemo, 

Venit et epoto Sarmata pastus equo ; 
Et qui prima bibit deprensi flumina Nili, 

Et quern supremse Tethyos unda ferit. 
Festinavit Arabs, festinavere Sabasi ; 

Et Cilices nimbis hie maduere suis. 
Crinibus in nodum tortis venere Sicambri, 

Atque aliter tortis crinibus -^thiopes. 
Vox diversa sonat : populorum est vox tamen una ; 

Cum verus Patriae diceris esse Pater. 

What conflux issuing forth, or entering in ! 

Praetors, Proconsuls to their provinces 

Hasting, and on return, in robes of state ; 

Lictors and rods, and ensigns of their power. 

Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings ; 

Or Embassies from regions far remote, 

In various habits, on the Appian road, 

Or on the Emilian ; some from farthest south, 

Syene, and where the shadows both ways fall, 

Meroe, Nilotic isle ; and, more to west. 

The realm of Bacchus, to the black-moor sea ; 

From the Asian kings, and Parthians, among these 

From India, and the golden Chersonese, 

And utmost Indian isle Taprobane ; 

Dusk faces, with white silken turbans wreathed ; 

From Gallia, Gades, and the British west. 

Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians, north 

Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool, — 

All nations now to Rome obedience pay. 

The English lines were suggested apparently by Martial's epigram, but 
how improved by Milton ! They are taken from the inimitable tableaux of 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 225 

Athens and Rome sketched by the Tempter on the Mount, in the Para- 
dise Regained. Juvenal's complaint that, besides Rome being infested by 
a profligate horde of Greeks, the Nile and Orontes had flowed into the 
Tiber, is thus paraphrased by Dr Johnson in his London : 

London ! The needy villain's general home, 
The common sewer of Paris and of Rome ; 
With eager thirst, by folly or by fate 
Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted State. 
Forgive my transports on a theme like this, 
I cannot bear a French Metropolis. 



XX. 

AMERICA. 



Qua sese ingenti terrarum America tractu 

Porrigit, atque orbis spectat utrumque polum ; 
Passim magnifica ostentat miracula rerum 

Natura, et vastas prodiga fundit opes. 
Hie, qualis nee Pyrene consurgit ad auras. 

Nee magna excelso stat TenerifFa jugo, 
Hie adeo aeriis redimiti nubibus Andes, 

JEterna attollunt culmina operta nive. 
Grandior hie fervet torrens, fremituque marine 

Amplior incursat littora longa lacus : 
Turn pelagi in morem per mille ingentia regna 

Devolvit vastas pluriraus amnis aquas. 
Talis Hyperboreum subter Laurentius axem 

Immani longum gurgite radit iter. 
Talis Orinocus, surgentisque semula ponti 

Plata, in Atlantaeum prsecipitata salum. 
Quid culta Europse invideas ? circum undique lustrans 

Nativum patrii littoris, Inde, decus ? 

Through those regions in which America stretches 
forth her vast tracts of land to the vicinity of either pole. 
Nature exhibits every where her magnificent wonders, and 
her prodigality of wealth. There, casting into insignifi- 

15 



226 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

cance the summits of the Pyrenees, and the lofty Peak of 
TenerifFe, the Andes are covered with eternal snow, and are 
half concealed by enveloping clouds. — The torrent of waters 
is there more awfully grand ; the Lake dashes against its 
long-extended margin with ocean-like surges ; many a 
River sweeps its gigantic course, as though it were a Sea, 
through a succession of populous States. — Witness the St 
Lawrence, the Orinoco, the La Plata ! with what magnifi- 
cence and impetuosity do they hurl their mighty mass of 
waters into the Atlantic ! Why envy, O Indian, the culti- 
vated scenery of Europe ? Are you not surrounded by 
Nature's marvels, which, if they be without, are above all 
ornament ? 

The Latin is by the Marquis of Wellesley. 



XXL 

ANCIENT SIGHTS OF LONDON. 

Tot colles Romse, quot sunt spectacula Trojce, 

Quae septem numero, digna labore tuo : 
Ista manent Trojse spectacula : 1. Busta, 2. Gigantes, 

3. Histrio, 4.Dementes, 5. Struthiones, 6.Ursa. 7. Leones. 

Seven hills there were in Rome, and so there be 

Seven sights in New-Troy crave our memory : 

1. Tombs, 2. Guild-Hall Giants, 3. Stage-plays, 4. Bedlam 

poor, 
5. Ostrich, 6. Bear-Garden, 7. Lions in the Tower. 

With reference to the sights of 2Voy, the traditions of Brute the 
Trojan, great grandson of ^neas, founding London, are mentioned in 
Geoffrey of Monmouth's History, and are sanctioned by Camden in his 
Britannia, and Milton in his History of England, and Whitelock in his 
Treatise on the Parliamentary Writ. They were solemnly advanced by 
Edward I. and his nobility in a letter to Pope Boniface, in regard to the 
controversy concerning the subjection of the Crown of Scotland. The 
subject is further treated of in Warton's History of English Poetry, and 
in the author's notes to Fortescue, De Laudibus Legum AnglicB. 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 227 

A particular account of the giants in Guildhall, will be found in 
Hone's Every-Day Booh, Vol. iii. p. 610. It would appear, that origi- 
nally giants made of wicker were kept in Guildhall, and used for pageants, 
and that at the restoration of the hall, a. d. 1708, the present Gog and 
Magog were constructed of wood carved and gilt. 

The amusements of the Bear Garden are frequently mentioned by 
old English writers. The following description of the sport by Stow, 
may shew the interest our ancestors took in it: "For it was a sport 
alone of these beasts to see the bear with his pink eyes leering after his 
enemies ; the nimbleness and wait of the dog to take his advantage, and 
the force and experience of the bear again to avoid the assaults ; if he 
were bitten in one place, how he would pinch in another to get free ; 
and if he were once taken, then what shift with biting, clawing, roaring, 
tugging, grasping, tumbling, and tossing, he would work to wind himself 
away; and, when he was loose, to shake his ears with the blood and 
slaver about his phisnomy, was a pittance of good relief." 

The following ancient description of England is concise, and is true 
in the present day, as regards one, at least, of the items. 

Anglia, mens, fons, pons, ecclesia, foemina, lana. 

For wool, and women, streams with bridges crown'd. 
Mountains, and fountains, England is renown'd. 



XXII. 
DRUNKEN BARNABY'S JOURNAL. 

Inde prato per amasno 

Dormiens temulente faeno, 

Eivus surgit et me capit, 

Et in flumen alte rapit ; 

" Quorsum?" clamant; " Nuper erro 

A Wansforth-brigs in Anglo-terra." 

On a hay-cock sleeping soundly, 

Th' river rose and took me roundly 

Down the current ; people cried : 

Sleeping down the stream I hied : 

** Where away ?" quoth they, " from Greenland ? 

" No ; from Wansforth-brigs in England." 

15—2 



228 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Harrington! dedi nummum 
Et fortunse paene summum. 

Thence to Harrington, be it spoken ! 
For name-sake I gave a token. 

Veni Bruarton, Claudi domum, 
Ubi querulum audiens sonum, 
Conjugem virum verberantem, 
Et vicinura equitantem. 

Thence to Bruarton, old Claudus 
Did approve us and applaud us. 
Where I heard a woeful bleating, 
A curst wife her husband beating : 
Neighbour rode for this default. 
Whilst I dyed my front with malt. 

Veni Banbury, O prophanum! 
Ubi vidi Puritanum 
Felem facientem furem 
Quia Sabbatho stravit murem. 

To Banbury came I, O profane One ! 
Where I saw a Puritane-one, 
Hanging of his cat on Monday, 
For killing of a mouse on Sunday. 

Sed scribentem digitum Dei 
Spectans " Miserere Mei," 
Atriis, angulis, confestim 
Evitandi cura pestem 
Fugi ; mori licet natus, 
Nondum mori sum paratus. 

Seeing there, as did become me, 
Written, " Lord, have mercy on me," 
On the portals, I departed, 
Lest I should have sorer smarted : 
Though from death none may be spared, 
I to die was scarce prepared. 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 229 

The sign of the inn at Wansford, a few years ago at least, represented 
this adventure of the floating haycock ; and the place has acquired the 
name of Wansford in England. 

With regard to Harrington's tokens, in the year 1613 tokens of lead 
and base metal, which had been issued by tradesmen for want of a small 
coinage, were abolished by royal proclamation; and another proclamation 
shortly afterwards declared that John Harrington, baron, was empowered 
to make " a competent quantity of farthing tokens of copper." People 
were not compelled to take them in payment, and they were very unpo- 
pular, which was probably hinted at, by giving one of them away. 

As regards the Banbury Puritan, there may be mentioned an anec- 
dote coDcerning John Ellis, of whom Dr Johnson said, " It is wonderful, 
sir, what is to be found in London. The most literary conversation 
that I ever enjoyed was at the table of Jack Ellis, a money- scrivener 
behind the Royal Exchange." John Ellis's mother was one of the fierce 
old Calvinists ; she had him flogged at school, for looking at a top on a 
Sunday, which she had given him the day before. 

A SUmmington, which was the procession Barnaby witnessed at Bru- 
arton, is particularly described in Part ii. Canto 11 oi Hudihras. 

The appalling spectacles of the plague with which England was fre- 
quently visited in ancient times are familiar to most readers from De 
Foe's picturesque descriptions. Wither's poetical description of the 
plague of London is little known. His relation of the citizens hurrying 
out of London is entertaining ; and some of his pictures are not less 
afiecting than those of De Foe. For example : 

Whilst in her arms the Mother thought she kept 
Her infant safe. Death stole him when she slept. 
Sometimes he took the Mother's life away. 
And left the little babe to lie and play 
With her cold breast, and childish game to make 
About those eyes that never more shall wake. 

The Editio Princeps of Drunken Bandby's Journal is anonymous and 
without date. The second edition is of the date a.d. 1716, the seventh 
edition was published a.d. 1818. The author's name is supposed to have 
been Barnaby Harrington : and he appears to have graduated at Queen's 
College, Oxford. 



230 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXIII. 

POPE'S GROTTO. 

Hie iibi sublustri sylvse nutantis in umbra, 

Lucentes pandit Thamesis unda sinus ; 
Qua pendet tectis Gemmarum plurima cuspis, 

Et Lymphae abrumpit subsilientis iter ; 
Marmora qua nondum luxu violata renident, 

Innocuasque vibrant eseca Metalla faees : 
Naturag ingenuae serutare recondita dona ! 

EfFossas aude temnere Divitias ! 
Ecee, hospes, saeras et Genium venerare Cavernaa ! 

Lselius hie, volvens magna, sedere solet : 
Hie gemuit Wyndham Patrias pereussus Amore ; 

Et te, Marehmonti ! vivida flamma rapit. 
I peeus hine venale ! loeo vos fingite dignos 

Qui Patriam eolitis, pauperiemque probam ! 

Here, where the shining stream of the Thames is sha- 
dowed by an o'erarehing grove, nigh whereunto is a grotto, 
from the roof of which hang the pointed tops of many 
crystals that impede the course of a trickling rill ; where 
marbles shine that have never been converted to luxurious 
uses, and metals glitter with innocent rays, as if they seemed 
to say, — Search the recondite treasures of bountiful Nature ! 
Dare to contemn riches dug from the bowels of the earth ! 
Approach, O stranger, and venerate the Genius of this 
sacred cave ! Here St John once sat, revolving in his mind 
affairs of the deepest import. Here Wyndham lamented 
the misfortunes of the country which he saved. Here 
Marchmont once glowed with the flame of patriotic enthu- 
siasm. Avaunt from this holy ground every harbourer of a 
venal thought! Welcome whosoever prefers an honest 
humility to iniquitous splendour, and whose dearest wishes 
are for the happiness of his country ! 

The Latin in the text is a translation from a poem on his grotto by 
Pope, who gives the following description of it : 

" I have put the last hand to my works of this kind, in happily finish- 
ing the subterraneous way and grotto. I there found a spring of the 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 281 

clearest water, which falls in a perpetual rill, that echoes through the 
cavern day and night. From the river Thames, you see through my 
arch up a walk of the wilderness, to a kind of open Temple, wholly com- 
posed of shells in the rustic manner ; and from that distance under the 
temple you look down through a sloping arcade of trees, and see the sails 
on the river passing suddenly and vanishing, as through a perspective 
glass. When you shut the doors of this grotto, it becomes on the instant, 
from a luminous room, a camera ohscura : on the walls of which all the 
objects of the river, hills, woods, and boats, are forming a moving pic- 
ture in their visible radiations; and when you have a mind to light it up, 
it affords you a very different scene ; it is finished with shells inter- 
spersed with pieces of looking-glass in angular forms ; and in the ceiling 
is a star of the same material, at which when a lamp (of an orbicular 
figure of thin alabaster) is hung in the middle, a thousand pointed rays 
glitter, and are reflected over the place. There are connected to this 
grotto by a narrower passage two porches, one towards the river, of 
smooth stones, full of light, and open; the other towards the garden, 
shadowed with trees, rough with shells, flints, and iron-ores. The bot- 
tom is paved with simple pebble, as is also the adjoining walk up the 
wilderness to the temple, in the natural taste, agreeing not ill with the 
little dripping murmur, and the aquatic idea of the whole place. It 
wants nothing to complete it but a good statue with an inscription, like 
that beautiful antique one which you know I am so fond of : 

Hujus Nympha loci, sacri custodia fontis, 
Dormio, dum blandse sentio murmur aquse. 

Parce meum, quisquis tanges cava marmora, somnum 
Rumpere ; sive bibas, sive lavare, tace. 

Nymph of the grot, these sacred springs I keep, 

And to the murmur of these waters sleep ; 

Ah spare my slumbers, gently tread the cave ! 

And drink in silence, or in silence lave ! " 
There are several letters from Pope to Sir Hans Sloane, concerning 
natural curiosities with which he furnished the poet for his grotto, particu- 
larly two joints of the Giant's Causeway. Dr Johnson speaks with con- 
tempt of the pains taken by Pope to embellish his grotto. The follow- 
ing particulars relating to Pope's grotto occur in a letter from the Lady 
M. W. Montague to the Countess of Mar : " Pope continues to embellish 
his house at Twickenham. He has made a subterranean grotto, which 
he has furnished with looking-glasses. And they tell me it has a very 
good effect. I here send you some verses addressed to Mr Gay, who wrote 
him a congratulatory letter on finishing his house. I stifled them here, 
and beg they may die the same death at Paris, and never go further 
than your closet : 

Ah friend ! 'tis true — this truth you lovers know — 
In vain my structures rise, my gardens grow. 



232 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

In vain fair Thames reflects the double scenes, 
Of hanging mountains, and of sloping greens : 
Joy lives not here ; to happier seats it flies, 
And only dwells where Wortley casts her eyes. 

What are the gay parterre, the chequer'd shade, 
The morning bower, the ev'ning colonnade, 
But soft recesses of uneasy minds 
To sigh unheard in, to the passing winds ? 
So the struck deer in some sequester'd part 
Lies down to die, the arrow at his heart. 
There stretch'd unseen in coverts hid from day, 
Bleeds drop by drop, and pants his life away." 

The Latin inscription in Pope's letter is an ancient one found in the 
grotto of Egeria. Another to the like effect, is much shorter, whilst it is, 
perhaps, more impressive : 

Nymphse Loci. 
Bibe — Lava — Tace. 
To the presiding Nymph. 
Drink — Bathe — Be silent. 

The grotto of Egeria is described by Eustace, and in several stanzas 
of Childe Harold, one of which is as follows : 

The mosses of thy fountain still are sprinkled 
With thine Elysian water-drops ; the face 
Of thy cave-guarded spring, with years unwrinkled. 
Reflects the meek-eyed genius of the place. 
Whose green wild margin now no more erase 
Art's works ; nor must the delicate waters sleep, 
Prison d in marble, bubbling from the base 
Of the cleft statue ; with a gentle leap 
The rill runs o'er, and round ; fern, flowers, and ivy creep. 
Fantastically tangled. 

De Lille, in his Jardins, thus expatiates on the Admonitus Locorum of 
Twickenham. 

Tel j'ai vu ce Twickenham dont Pope est createur, 
Le gout le defendit d'un art profanateur, 
Ah ! si dans vos travaux est toujours respecte 
Le lieu par un grande homme autrefois habite ! 



m.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 233 

XXIV. 

THE RHINE. 

Nympharum pater, amniumque Rhene ! 
Quicunque Othrysias bibunt pruinas, 
Sic semper liquidis fruaris undis, 
Nee te barbara contumeliosi 
Calcatum rota conterat bubulci ; 
Sic et cornibus aureus receptis, 
Et Romanus eas utraque ripa : 
Trajanum populis suis, et urbi 
Tibris te dominus rogat, remittas ! 

O Bhine, the Sire of Nymphs, and of the streams which 
drink the Northern snows I Restore Trajan to his People, 
and to Rome ! Doing which, may your waters ever flow 
uncongealed ; may no barbarian King trample on thy 
ice-bound surface with his barbarous waggon-wheels ; may 
you rush all golden into the sea with your two resplen- 
dent horns ; may each of your banks be Roman territory ! 
Imperial Tiber asks, and promises this. 

The commentators have a great deal to say upon the details of this 
epigram, referring, amongst other matters, to the travelling equipage of 
Charlemagne, and to the practice at Roman triumphs of leading about 
gilt pageants of captive rivers. It is selected here chiefly as it may be 
thought to have suggested a passage in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, 
which was afterwards imitated by Milton, with more decoration, but, 
perhaps, with less simplicity and sweetness: 

For thy kindness to me shewn. 

Never from thy banks be blown 

Any tree with windy force. 

Cross thy streams, to stop thy course. 

May no beast that comes to drink. 

With his horns cast down thy brink. 

May none that for thy fish do look 

Cut thy banks, to dam thy brook. 

Bare foot may no neighbour wade, 

In the cool streams, wife nor maid. 

When the spawn on stones doth lie, 

To wash their hemp, and spoil the fry. 



234 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

In Comus it is : 

May thy brimmed waves for this, 

Their full tribute never miss, 

From a thousand petty rills, 

That tumble down the snowy hills. 

Summer drought, nor singed air 

Never scorch thy tresses fair. 

Nor wet October's torrent flood 

Thy molten crystal fill with mud. 

May thy billows roll ashore 

The beryl, and the golden ore. 

May thy lofty head be crowned, 

With many a tower, and terrace round, 

And here and there, thy banks upon, 

With groves of myrrh, and cinnamon. 

The Rhine has been more frequently and patriotically celebrated in 
modern than in ancient song. With regard to our Thames, Spenser in 
his Faery Queen, and Drayton in his Polyolbion, have done it poetic 
honour : but the couplet of Denham in his Cooper's Hill, has, perhaps, 
been more often cited, and its effect more critically analysed, than any 
other lines on any other river : 

Though deep yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull ; 
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing, full. 



XXV. 



STONEHENGE. 



En hse tibi sanctae 
Majorum sedes ! non hie coelata labore 
Marmora, Palladia vel speres arte eolumnas. 
Sed taeito haee lustres eultu loca ; nescia ferri 
Saxa, rudes aras, circumspice I Cernis ut atrae 
Desuper impendent rupes ? His saepe sub umbris 
Velati lino et modulantes pollice fila 
Ducebant choreas Druidae, dum mobilis aether 
Et mortale genus requievit : sidera lapsu 
Mansere in medio, nee agebat nubila Caurus. 
Nunc quoque pallenti arrectus sub nocte viator 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 235 

(Agricolis si certa fides) hie tenuia eireum 
Sentit et impulsas imitantia murmura ehordas, 
Pennarumque levem stridorem ; hie flamine vestes 
Undantes Zephyrorum, et inania verba remitti. 

Behold here are the abodes that your ancestors held 
sacred ! You will not, indeed, expect to meet here with 
marbles endued with life by the chisel of the statuary, or 
with columns reared according to rules of Palladian art. 
Yet these sights fill the mind with silent awe. Look round 
on these stony masses which no iron has ever violated, the 
altars of a rude people ! Here, whilst Man and Nature 
were at rest, in the silence of the night, the Druids, habited 
in flowing robes of linen, performed their magic rites. 
Fable reports them to have arrested the moon in her 
course, and to have stilled the hurricane-blasts. Even in 
the present day, if we may give credit to the vulgar belief 
of the vicinity, midnight sounds are heard in this spot, 
resembling the flitting of wings, and the dying melody of 
harps, and half-heard whispers which seem to be the voices 
of spirits. 

Much light has been thro-wn on the antiquities of Stonehenge by the 
Hon. Algernon Herbert, in his Cyclops Christianus. Mr Herbert impugns 
the general opinion, that the name denotes hanging stones; and suggests 
a different etymon, namely, that, at this spot the memorable collision 
between Hengist, Duke of the Saxons, and the Britons, took place. He 
considers that groves of upright stones were substituted by the later 
Britons for the oak-tree groves of obsolete Druidism. The date of the 
erections at Stonehenge, and the nation which raised them, whether 
Romans, Danes, Anglo-Saxons, Britons, or Hyperboreans, have been the 
subjects of much diversity of opinion. Caesar mentions the reputation 
the Druids had acquired for bringing the Moon to a full stop in the 
middle of her course. Lucan, in lines not surpassed in vigour by any 
writer of the Augustan period, relates the lessons which they taught in 
their sacred groves of an after-life of glory, the hopes of which should 
expel the fear of death from the hearts of warriors : 

Vos quoque qui fortes animas belloque peremptas 
Laudibus in longum vates demittitus sevum, 
Plurima securi fudistis carmina Bardi ! 
Et vos barbaricos ritus, moremque sinistrum 



236 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Sacrorum Druidse positis repetistis ab armis. 

Solis nosse deos et coeli numina vobis, 

Aut solis nescire datum. Nemora alta remotis 

Incolitis lucis : vobis auctoribus, umbrse 

Non tacitas Erebi sedes, ditisque profundi 

Pallida regna petunt : regit idem spiritus artus 

Orbe alio : longae (canitis si cognita) vitse 

Mors media est. Certe populi, quos despicit Arctos, 

Felices errore suo, quos, ille timorum 

Maximus, baud urget leti metus ! Inde ruendi 

In ferrum mens prona viris, animseque capaces 

Mortis, et ignavum rediturse parcere vitse. 

You too, ye bards ! whom sacred raptures fire, 
To chant your heroes to your country's lyre : 
Who consecrate in your immortal strain. 
Brave patriots' souls in righteous battle slain ; 
Securely now the tuneful talk renew. 
And noblest themes in deathless songs pursue. 
The Druids now, while arms are heard no more. 
Old mysteries and barbarous rites restore : 
A tribe, who singular devotion love. 
And haunt the lonely coverts of the grove. 
To these, and these of all mankind alone. 
The gods are sure revealed, or sure unknown. 
If dying mortals' doom they sing aright, 
No ghosts descend to dwell in dreadful night : 
No parting souls to grisly Pluto go. 
Nor seek the dreary silent shades below : 
But forth they fly, immortal in their kind. 
And other bodies in new worlds they find. 
Thus life for ever runs its endless race, 
And like a line, death but divides the space ; 
A stop which can but for a moment last, 
A point between the future and the past. 
Thrice happy they beneath their Northern skies, 
Who that worst fear, the fear of death, despise ! 
Hence they no cares for this frail being feel, 
But rush undaunted on the pointed steel; 
Provoke approaching fate, and bravely scorn 
To spare that life, which must so soon return. 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 237 

XXVI. 

ON A CRYSTAL CONTAINING A DROP OF WATER. 
(A) 

Dum crystalla puer contingere lubrica gaudet, 
Et gelidum tenero poUice versat onus, 

Vidit perspicuo deprensas marmore lymphas, 
Dura quibus solis parcere novit hyems : 

Et siccum relegens labris sitientibus orbem, 
Irrita qusDsitis oscula figit aquis. 

The crystal smooth a boy with joy surveyed, 
And round the frozen mass his fingers laid ; 
He sees, enclosed within transparent stone. 
The wave that rugged Winter spared alone ; 
On arid orb he fixes thirsty lip, 
And liquids vainly seeks from thence to sip. 

(B) 

Clauditur immunis convexo tegmine rivus, 

Duratisque vagus fons operitur aquis. 
Nonne vides, propriis ut spumet gemma lacunis, 

Et refluos ducant pocula viva sinus ? 
Udaque pingatur radiis obstantibus Iris, 

Secretas hiemes soUicitante die ? 
Mira silex, mirusque latex, qui flumina vincit, 

Nee lapis est merito, quod fluit, et lapis est. 

A moving stream is pent in vaulted cave, 

And, closed by concrete floods, a wand'ring wave. 

Within the cavities observe the foam : 

In nat'ral basin billows freely roam I 

The humid Iris' rays opposed, behold : — 

The beams of light repulsed by secret cold. 

O wondrous rock, and surge surpassing streams I 

Still fluid, still a stone, the substance seems. 



238 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Oh. 

Gibbon writes of Claudian : " He was endowed with the rare and 
precious talent of raising the meanest, of adorning the most barren, 
and of diversifying the most similar topics." 

Claudian composed several more Latin and two Greek epigrams 
upon this natural phenomenon. Addison in his Travels in Italy, has a 
curious notice of a similar phenomenon exhibited at Milan. 

" Canon Settala's cabinet is always shewn to a stranger among the 
curiosities of Milan, which I shall not be particular upon, the printed 
account of it being common enough. Among its natural curiosities I took 
particular notice of a piece of crystal, that inclosed a couple of drops, 
which looked like water when they were shaken, though, perhaps, they 
are nothing but bubbles of air. It is such a rarity as this that I saw at 
Vendome in France, which they there pretend is a tear that our Saviour 
shed over Lazarus, and was gathered up by an angel, who put it in a 
little crystal vial, and made a present of it to Mary Magdalene. The 
famous Pere Mabillon is now engaged in the vindication of this tear, 
which a learned ecclesiastic, in the neighbourhood of Vendome, would 
have suppressed, as a false and ridiculous relic, in a book that he has 
dedicated to his diocesan, the Bishop of Blois. It is in the possession of 
a Benedictine convent, which raises a considerable revenue out of the 
devotion that is paid to it, and has now retained the most learned 
father of their order to write in its defence." 



XXVII. 
INSECTS IN AMBER. 



(A) 

Dum Phaetontea Formica vagatur in umbra, 
Implicuit tenuem succina gutta feram. 

Sic modo quae fiierat vita contempta manente 
Funeribus facta est nunc pretiosa suis. 

A Drop of Amber, from a poplar plant 
Fell unexpected, and embalm'd an Ant, 
The little insect we so much contemn. 
Is, from a worthless Ant, become a gem. 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 239 

(B) 

Flentibus Heliadum ramis dum Vipera repit, 
Fluxit in obstantem suceina gemma feram : 

Quae dum miratur pingui se rore teneri, 
Concrete riguit vineta repente gelu. 

Ne tibi regali placeas, Cleopatra, sepulcro ; 
Vipera si tumulo nobiliore jaeet. 

On the Sun's daughter's arms a Viper crept, 
When o'er the wriggling thing the amber wept. 
Wond'ring to be so bound in clammy dew, 
She petrified amid the glass'ning glue. 
Thy sepulture, proud Queen, no longer prize ; 
If in a nobler tomb thine adder lies. 



(C) 

Et latet et lucet Phaethontide condita gutta, 

Ut videatur Apis nectare clausa suo. 
Dignum tantorum pretium tulit ilia laborum. 

Credibile est ipsam sic voluisse mori. 

Pent in th' electric drop, and yet display'd, 
She seems to swim the nectar she has made. 
This might the meed of all her toils supply : 
Thus, sure, she pray'd that she embalm'd might die. 

Professor Pictet has published a work on the insects which have been 
found in amber. It is reviewed in the Edinburgh Neiu Philosophical 
Journal for October 1846. A publication was commenced under the 
auspices of the Queen of Prussia, for developing the subject of insects in 
amber, with more particular reference to the amber found in Prussia on 
the coasts of the Baltic. Different philosophers undertook to make 
researches respecting different species of insects. The origin of Prussian 
amber goes back into the tertiary period. The great quantity of amber 
thrown up by the Baltic sea is supposed to be owing to a considerable 
bed in the present basin of that sea. There have been about 800 fossil 
species of insects discovered in Prussian amber. These species are all 
different from those of the existing Fauna. But only two types have 
been discovered which are sufficiently distinct from living insects to re- 
quire the formation of new Families. The new Genera are a little more 



240 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

numerous. Though the feather of a bird, and some tufts of hair of 
mammiferse, have been discovered, and a few small shells belonging to the 
mollusca, the articulata are the only division of the animal kingdom of 
which amber has preserved sufficiently numerous remains to throw some 
light on their history. The admirable preservation of the greater part of 
insects and vegetables in amber, the transparency of the material afford- 
ing the means of inspecting the most delicate organs almost as well as in 
living nature, are circumstances which impart peculiar interest to the 
study of the Fauna and Flora in amber. 

To insects in amber. Pope compares small critics on great writers, who 
thus are associated with the names of Shakspere or Milton : 

Pretty ! in amher to observe the forms 
Of hairs, or straws, or grubs, or dirt, or worms. 
The things, we know, are neither rich, nor rare. 
But wonder how the devil they got there. 



XXVIII. 

PHENOMENON PRODUCED BY SNOWBALLS. 

Me nive candenti petiit modo Julia, rebar 

Igne carere nivem, sed tamen ignis erat. 
Quid nive frigidius ? nostrum tamen urere pectus 

Nix potuit manibus, Julia, missa tuis. 
Quis locus insidiis dabitur mihi tutus amoris, 

Frigora concreta si latet ignis aqua ? 
Julia, sola potes nostras extinguere flammas, 

Non nive, non glacie, sed potes igne pari. 

Julia, sweet Julia, flung the gather'd snow. 
Nor fear'd I burning from the wat'ry blow : 
'Tis cold, I cried ; but, ah ! too soon I found, 
Sent by that hand it dealt a scorching wound. 
Kesistless Fair ! we fly thy pow'r in vain, 
Who turn'st to fiery darts the frozen rain. 
Since snow impell'd by thee but fires my heart, 
O try if mutual flames may heal the smart ! 



III.] PLACES AND NATURAL PHENOMENA. 241 

The Latin is by Petronius Afranius, an aythor of whom nothing else 
is generally known. The English is from Oldys's collection of Epigrams, 
a little modified. A more elaborate version will be found in the works 
of Soame Jenyns. It is extolled, considerably, as it would seem, beyond 
its merits, in the collection of Latin Epigrams, published for the use of 
Eton school, a.d. 1740. Elegans et acutum epigramma, mejudice, ut in 
tenui materia et affabre undequaque concinnatum et omnibus numeris ab- 
solutum : " An elegant and acute epigram ; which, on a light subject, is 
contrived with artistic skill in every part, and is expressed in numbers to 
the perfection of which nothing is wanting." 

A remarkable phenomenon produced with snow, was a statue of snow 
to the formation of which Michael Angelo was called upon to bend his 
exalted genius, by Piero, the unworthy son and successor of Lorenzo de 
Medici. It is related by an historian, that at a Naumachia, at which 
Domitian presided, not only all the combatants, but many of the spec- 
tators, were killed: for a snow-storm came on, and, nevertheless, the 
emperor would not stop the spectacle ; but the multitude were obliged 
to sit through it bare-headed, and without changing their dresses, though 
the emperor changed his several times : the consequence was that a great 
number of the spectators caught cold and died. Martial has two epigrams 
on the subject ; one concerning an individual who went to the fete with a 
black gown, instead of a white lacerna, like every one else. The Gods, says 
the Poet, turned his gown white with snow. Another epigram accounts 
for Domitian not seeking to withdraw from the pelting of the snow, by 
its having been dropt on him from the skies in sport by his son, who had 
lately died, and been deified. (A coin of Domitian is extant, representing 
that son sitting upon a globe, and surrounded with stars). Martial 
concludes : 

Qui siccis lascivit aquis, et ab sethere ludit, 
Suspicor has pueri Caesaris esse nives. 



16 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE ARTS. 



I. 

CROMWELL'S PORTRAIT PRESENTED TO QUEEN 
CHRISTB^A. 

Bellipotens Virgo ! septem regnata Trionum, 

Christina ! Arctoi lucida stella poli ! 
Cernis quas merui dura sub casside rugas, 

Utque senex, armis impiger, ora tero. 
Invia fatorum dum per vestigia victor, 

Exsequor et populi fortia jussa manu : 
Ast tibi submittit frontem reverentior umbra, 

Nee sunt hi vultus regibus usque truces. 

Queen of the North ! bright Arctic polar star ! 

Christina ! Virgin- Arbitress of war ! 

Behold what wrinkles stamp a warrior's brow, 

In hard-won fields, 'neath massive helms that grow. 

Whilst o'er untrodden paths of Fate I press'd. 

Obedient to a People's high behest. 

And yet to thee my eyes submission own : 

Nor does this face on Monarchs always frown. 

The translation is from a ship-newspaper. Cowper has also translated 
Milton's lines. Evelyn, in his Epigrams on Painting, has the following 
verses upon a likeness by Walker : 

If we may trust to Metoposcopy, 

To lines o' th' face, and language of the eye. 

We find him thoughtful, resolute, and sly. 

He knew when to cajole, and to dissemble. 

And when to make his foes with biust'ring tremble. 

We find (though Cromwell's little understood) 

The sword has made him great, and pencil good. 



rv.] THE ARTS. 248 

There is an original picture of Cromwell preserved in Sidney College, 
Cambridge. This was Cromwell's college, where he is fabled to have acted 
the part of Tactus, or Touch, in the once famous University play of Lin^ 
gua, or the Tongue. The likeness of Cromwell in Symons's Crowns is 
vouched by Pepys and Evelyn. The author has a medal of Symons, 
made after the battle of Dunbar, with a motto, " The Lord of Hosts," 
in which there is a more juvenile and animated face of Cromwell than 
upon his Crowns. 

A poetical picture of Queen Christina will not be an unsuitable com- 
panion-piece to Milton's Epigram. Christina was the daughter of the 
great Gustavus Adolphus, to whose throne she succeeded when five years 
old. She afforded one of the rare examples in history of an abdication 
of royalty: 

A sa jupe courte et legere 

A son pourpoint, a son collet, 

Au chapeau garni d'un plumet, 

Au ruban ponceau qui pendoit 

Et par-devant, et par-derriere. 

A sa mine galante et fiere 

D'Amazone et d'aventuriere. 

A ce nez de consul remain, 

A ce front altier d'heroine, 

A ce grand ceil tendre et hautain, 

Moins beau que le votre et moins fin, 

Soudain je reconnus Christine. 

Christine des arts le maintien, 

Christhie qui ceda pour rien 

Et son royaume, et votre eglise. 

Qui connut tout, et ne crut rien. 

Que le saint Pere canonise. 

Que damne le Lutherien, 

Et que la gloire immortalise. 



II. 

PORTRAIT OF ANTONHJS PRIMUS. 

Haec mihi quae colitur violis pictura, rosisque, 
Quos referat vultus, Caeditiane, rogas ? 

Talis erat Marcus mediis Antonius annis 

Primus : in hoc juvenem se videt ore senex. 

Ars utinam mores, animumque effingere posset ! 
Pulchrior in terris nulla tabella foret. 

16—2 



244 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

What face with violets and roses crown'd 
So strikes the eye ? you ask, with awe profound. 
Antonius Primus here pourtray'd we see, 
Just what in middle age he used to be. 
Could art express his manners and his mind, 
On earth no fairer picture should we find I 

This piece is inserted in the present collection chiefly because it ap- 
pears to have suggested the point of Ben Jonson's lines written under 
Martin Droueshout's engraving of Shakspere's portrait in the first edition 
of his Playsi edited by his "Fellows" (as they are designated in his 
will). Homing and Condell. (See the Art. on The Pictures of Shakspere, 
Knight's edition, Vol. vm.) The lines are as follow 

This figure that thou here seest put, 

It was for gentle Shakspere cut. 

Wherewith the graver had a strife. 

With nature to outdo the life. 

O could he but have drawn his wit 

As well in brass, as he has hit^ 

His face; the print would then surpass 

All that was ever writ in brass ! 

But since he cannot, reader, look 

Not on his picture, but his book. 



III. 

PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. 

Ingens ingentem quem personat Orbis Erasmum, 
Hsec tibi dimidium picta tabella refert. 

At cur non totum ? mirari desine, lector, 
Integra nam totum terra nee ipsa capit. 

One half this canvass shows of that great sage, 
Whom worlds proclaim the wonder of the age ; 
Why not the whole ? cease, reader, thy surprise, 
Him the whole earth's not able to comprise. 



I's idea of justifying the choice of a half-length portrait on the 
ground that the whole world could not contain a whole Erasmus, is a 



IV.] THE ARTS. 245 

glaring instance of false wit ; it moreover seems to have been borrowed 
from Martial's epigram on Pompey and his Sons, referred to in a former 
chapter. The portrait was by Holbein. The following verses on the 
same picture are in Evelyn's Collection of poetical descriptions of Pictures. 

The famous Swiss no little skill hath shewn, 
In painting of his generous Patron. 
This work in England th* Artist much commends, 
By which he was preferr'd, and gain'd his ends. 
Thou mad'st Erasmus, Holbein ! as 'tis said ; 
But I say that Erasmus Holbein made. 



IV. 

PICTURE OF ST BRUNO, 
Founder of the Grande Chartreuse. 

Sic oculos, sic Bruno manus, sic ora ferebat, 

Allobrogum rupes nudas et inhospita saxa 

Dum coleret, sed plena Deo, sed numine plenus, 

JEterno sacras leges inscriberet aeri. 

Adspicis ut viva spirant in imagine vultus ? 

Ut movet inde manus placidas, movet inde lacertos, 

Dulcis in adstantes ut dulcia lumina flectit ? 

Et nisi nunc Christo jurata silentia servet, 

Promentem audires imo de pectore sensus. 

Such were the eyes, such the hands of St Bruno ! Such 
was the expression of his countenance, whilst he made his 
dwelling among the rocks and precipices of the Allobrogae, 
naked and inhospitable indeed, but full of the presence of 
God : and there he inscribed his sacred laws in immortal 
brass. Do you behold how his countenance is animated in 
the living portrait ? How his arms and hands reach out 
of the canvass ? How the benignant expression of his eyes 
is turned towards the bye-standers ? And unless he were 
preserving that silence which he had solemnly vowed to 
Christ, you wOuld witness him pouring forth with eloquence 
the emotions which are pent in his bosom. 



246 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Menage writes of the picture in the text, " J'etois un jour aux Char- 
treux, ou Ton me fit voir un tableau de St Bruno, tres bien fait. On me 
demanda ce que j*en pensois: je dis sur le champ, *Sans sa regie il 
parleroit.' " Le Soeur, in the year 1648, painted the history of St Bruno 
in twenty-two pictures. The first of the series represents the miracle to 
which the conversion of St Bruno was ascribed, namely, that of a Pari- 
sian monk of the name of Raymond, who, upon being carried to the 
sepulchre, rose suddenly from his cofl3.n, to declare that he was damned. 
— The casting out of a devil by Ignatius Loyola in a painting of Rubens, 
has been thus described in Evelyn's epigrams : 

See how the Dsemoniac raves and rends. 

See how like foes he treats the best of friends ; 

His rage is great, great as the painter's merit, 

In every limb you may discern a Spirit, 

In every tint there is a kind of tone, •» 

The sharp lights shriek, the heavy shadows groan, I 

The Fiend 's adjured, and the great work is done, i 

Le Soeur, in one of his pictures of St Bruno, represents him perform- 
ing a miracle scarcely more credible than that of St Ignatius casting out 
devils ; he is represented by the painter in the attitude of rejecting a 
mitre offered to him by the pope. 

The habit of the Chartreux was white ; it was an obligation of the 
Order to speak no words except, " Brother, we must die," to sleep in their 
own coflans, and dig their own graves. St Bruno died at the age of fifty 
in the monastery he had founded. 



V. 
ECCE HOMO, BY MIGNARD. 

Christi cruentse, splendida Principum 
Non certet ultra purpura purpuras ; 
Junco palustri sceptra cedant, 
Textilibus diadema spinis. 

That blood-stained robe outvies the purple of Kings : 
That reed is more to be revered than sceptres : The dia- 
dems of earthly power are of dim effulgence compared 
with that Crown of Thorns. 

The Latin stanza is by Santeuil. Mignard was a distinguished French 
painter under the reign of Louis XIV. It is related, that, on one occa- 



IV.] THE ARTS. 247 

sion, when the king sent for him to draw his portrait, he said, "I am 
grown old since I last sat to you," to which Mignard replied, " I perceive 
in your Majesty's countenance the lines of several more campaigns." 

In the French collection of engravings there are twelve of Ecce 
Homo by Titian : some of them have the reed in Christ's hand, others 
not. In the Florentine Gallery there is an Ecce Homo by Cegalo, which 
is much admired for expressing in Pilate's face mixed feelings of being 
shocked at the sufferings of an innocent man, and of reflection on the 
policy which he deemed necessary for his own safety. Fuseli observes 
of Correggio, that he once " exceeded all competition of expression in the 
divine featm-es of his Ecce Homo : but that this sudden irradiation, this 
flash of power was only an exception from his wonted style ; for that 
pathos and character own Raphael for their master, colour is the domain 
of Titian, and harmony the sovereign mistress of Correggio." Of Rem- 
brandt's Ecce Homo, Fuseli writes that it is " a composition, which, al- 
though complete, hides in its grandeur the Hmits of its scenery. Its 
form is as a pyramid whose top is lost in the sky as its base in tumultu- 
ous murky waves. From the fluctuating crowds who inundate the base 
of the tribunal, we rise to Pilate, surrounded and perplexed by the 
varied ferocity of the sanguinary synod to whose remorseless gripe he 
surrenders his wand ; and from him we ascend to the sublime resigna- 
tion of innocence in Christ, and, regardless of the roar below, securely 
repose on his countenance. Such is the grandeur of a conception, which 
in its blaze absorbs the abominable detail of materials too vulgar to be 
mentioned : had the materials been equal to the conception and compo- 
sition, the Ecce Homo of Rembrandt, even unsupported by the magic of 
his light and shade, or his spell of colours, would have been an assemblage 
of superhuman powers." 



VI. 

PICTURE OF MARILLAC, DOCTOR OF THE SORBONNE. 

Usque adeo sacris ardebat ab ignibus, impar 
Ut pectus vix sustinet, impatiensque teneri 
Christi dirus amor sese efFundebat in omnes : 
Et ni muta foret, Christum resonaret imago. 

So intense is the flame of piety in his breast, that he 
seems scarcely equal to sustain his own religious fervor. 
His Christian love appears so overflowing that it seems to 
gush forth on all mankind. You would say, that if his 
portrait could speak, he would fill your ears with the word 
Christ, 



248 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

VII. 
PICTURE OF SHAFTESBURY. 

Fallor ? an agnosco permistum te quoque turbse, 
Shaftsburi, 6 Anglis caput horum et causa malorum ! 
Agnosco vultus, nee quenquam conscia falli 
Fistula permittit, pendensque sub ilia Siphon. 
Quin etiam anguiculos inhonesto vulnere nasci, 
Et, qua rima patet, tubulo manare colubros 
Conspicor, et latitans subter prsecordia virus. 
Ille paveas, structusque dolis, hue turbidus atque hue 
Inelinat vultus, et partem versat in omnem. 
Nusquam recta acies : vigil omnia circumspectat, 
Omnia formidat ; pallorque per ora fatetur 
Invidiamque, odiumque simul, gelidumque timorem. 
His porro accedit, subito quod forte tumultu 
Excussae manibus tabulae, revolutaque charta 
Associatorum diros testata furores : 
Labitur ille in humum velox, properatque libellos 
Colligere in gremium, tacitaque recondere veste : 
At rapit oppressum, et conanti plurima frustra 
Erecto jamjam vulnus meditatur ab ense 
Astrsea ; ille ictum venientem a vertice cautus 
Prasvidet, et celeri dilapsus corpore cedit. 

Am I mistaken, or do I perceive you, O Shaftesbury, 
mingling in this crowd, you who have been the cause and 
the head of all these evils which have fallen on England ? 
I recognise his countenance, and were I in any doubt, it 
would be removed by the medical tube which, in the picture, 
hangs from his side. Through the aperture where it is 
inserted in his body, I behold snakes discharging their 
venom amidst his inmost vitals. He, indeed, bears a look 
of apprehension and of wiliness, timidly and cautiously 
turning his eyes in every direction. But, behold! by a 
sudden tumult, there falls from his hand the rebellious 
EoU of the Associators : he hastens to snatch it up, and to 
conceal it in the secret folds of his garment. Astraea de- 



IV.] THE ARTS. 249 

tects him, wrests the scroll from his grasp, and with up- 
lifted sword meditates an avenging blow. He, however, 
watches the impending destruction, dexterously evades it, 
and vanishes in flight from the scene. 

The Latin lines are taken from a poem on Windsor Castle in the 
Musce Anglicance. The poet is describing a piece of tapestry which 
formed a canopy : he gives an animated view of St George and the 
Dragon, and then he proceeds to depicture Charles II. on horseback sub- 
duing the monster rebellion. It would seem that among the discom- 
fited rebels Shaftesbury was a prominent figure. Shaftesbui-y had an 
injury in his side occasioned by the overturning of a carriage : his side 
was opened, and an issue was inserted ; this operation was considered at 
the time one of the greatest cures that had been performed on the human 
body. The issue or siphon was made a frequent subject of illiberal 
raillery. Shaftesbury was called Count Tapski with reference to this cir- 
cumstance, and a prevalent report that he was aspiring to the crown of 
Poland. A siphon used for drawing wines got the name of a Shaftesbury. 
The siphon is introduced in the scenery of Dryden's Court Masque of 
Albion and Albanius, in which Shaftesbury is represented with fiend's 
wings, and several fanatical heads are drinking poison from his side 
through a tap. The accident met with by Shaftesbury was attended with 
great benefit to the English nation, as it led to his patronage of Locke, 
whereby that philosopher had the means of indulging his genius on 
matters conducive to the knowledge of the human mind, and the promo- 
tion of civil liberty and reUgious toleration. It may reasonably be sup- 
posed that much of the generous policy which occasionally appears in 
Lord Shaftesbury's political measures, may have emanated from Locke. 

With regard to the paper of the Association, this is the memorable 
paper on which was founded the charge brought against him for high 
treason. A trial, very memorable on account of the bill of indictment 
against him being ignored by the grand jury, and also because his libe- 
ration from the Tower gave occasion to Dryden's celebrated satire called 
The Medal. The actual medal to which the poem relates, and which wa.s 
struck on the occasion of Shaftesbury's acquittal, was produced by the 
author at his last introductory lecture on the Laws of England, in the 
University of Cambridge. 



250 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

VIII. 

PICTURE OF BELISARIUS. 

Zeuxi potens, succurris, et arte fidelis honesta 
Triste ministerium prsestas. — Viden"' acer in ipsa 
Pauperie spirat vultus, magnique doloris 
Majestas ! viden' incompto qua? plurima mento 
Canities squallet male culta, et textile tegmen 
Membra sequens curis exesos exprimit artus ! 
Serta procul eapiti delapsa, et inutilis hasta, 
Abjectumque jacet fida cum casside scutum ; 
Reliquiaa Herois, priscseque insignia laudis ! 
Sic oculos integrse aedes, stantesque columnsB 
Segnius irritant, cum dulci horrore tuentes 
Disjectam templi molem, grandesque ruinas. 
Romanum agnosco ! ah ! quantum mutatus ab illo 
Qui quondam templis Persarum signa refixit, 
Restituitque Jovi Patrio ; qui Cabadis ultus 
Perjuras vires, et non ad foedera natas ; 
Quo duce conjuncti fratres, turmseque rebelles 
Cessere Hypatii ; quo, gens inculta Gothorum 
Adjecta Imperio, et Romanis viribus impar 
Vandalia ; invisum vulgus Musae ! alta vorago 
Doctrinse veteris, quae pleno absorbuit aestu 
Artis quicquid habent ebur et spirantia signa, 
Aut fuci egregii tractus, Musaeque labores. 
Quo cecidere Hunni, Scythico jam milite partas 
Fracturi, et media posituri signa Suburra. 
O nimium felix ! si pugnas inter et arma 
Contigerat cecidisse, atque hostis ab ense benigno 
Exhalasse animam : si nunquam pacis iniqua 
Tempora vidisset, vel siccae taedia mortis. 
Jam qualis rediit ! vix tanti nominis umbra, 
Exul, caecus, inops, et multo vulnere tardus, 
Crudelis Patriae decus opprobriumque, pericla 
Cui mendicatum vix praebent garrula panem. 

Zeuxis, you perform a mournful office with your power- 
ful art. Do you see how spirit beams in the countenance 



IV.] THE ARTS. 251 

of yonder old man ! There is majesty in the depth of his 
affliction ; though his grey hairs are hanging negleetedly, 
and his looped and windowed raggedness exposes to view 
his emaciated limbs. Near him lies a chaplet that has 
fallen from his head, and a useless spear, and a shield and 
a helmet which he has thrown away. Such are the relics 
of a Hero, and the trophies of departed glory ! Surely 
thus a towering edifice supported by lofty columns affects 
the mind of a spectator with impressions far weaker than 
those that inspire it with secret awe, when he contemplates 
the mouldering ruins of some ancient temple, or the totter- 
ing battlements of some once impregnable Citadel. It is 
a Eoman General whom I behold ! Ah, how changed from 
that invincible Hero who rolled back the impetuous deluge 
of Vandals, and stemmed for a season that torrent of bar- 
barism which was destined to overflow whatever genius had 
hallowed, or was adorned by the liberal arts ; postponing 
their defilement by those enemies of the Muses and of 
the civilization of mankind. Happy, thrice happy if the 
wretched man had perished then, when he was waging 
battles against the subverters of human improvement : if 
he had never known how Peace may be prolific of injustice, 
or what evils may embitter the prolongation of human life ! 
Blind, an Exile, a Beggar, he slowly drags along his 
wretched frame, which is shattered by many a wound sus- 
tained for his country's sake. His daily bread is implored 
with a narrative of what he once did for others, and of how 
much he stands in need of charity for himself ! 



The picture, generally attributed to Yandyk, which the verses in the 
text describe, represents Belisarius deprived of sight, and sitting by the 
way-side, with a staff in one hand, and the other hand extended to 
receive the donation of a charitable female. On the opposite side of the 
picture two other females are placed, who appear to be influenced by 
feelings of compassion. A youthful soldier standing near seems to 
sympathize warmly with the humiliating state of the persecuted hero. 

Whether Belisarius was deprived of his sight by the Emperor Justi- 
nian ? whether he ever begged for an obolus or other coin ? whether 
an ancient statue in the Vatican of a military personage holding forth 
one of his hands, is the statue of Belisarius asking for his obolus, or of 
the Emperor Augustus appeasing Nemesis ? are questions of animated 



252 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Oh. 

controversy. The lawgivers and priests of the middle ages combated 
with each other the reality of facts which implicated the fame of the 
legislator and pagan Justinian. — Gibbon, Winckelmann, and recently Lord 
Mahon, have directed their inquiries to these subjects ; and Marmontel 
has embellished them by interesting fiction. 

The poetry in the text is taken from Popham's Poemata Anglorum : 
its principal defect is one to which modern Latin poety is almost univer- 
sally subject, that of sacrificing the sense to an imitation of the expres- 
sions of classical authors. The main object of modern Latin verse seems 
to be, to remind the reader of passages in the ancient poets : and as this 
is a merit which is more capable of being weighed in a balance than in- 
vention and fancy, it is that which is chiefly encouraged in schools and 
universities. 



IX. 

PICTURE OF THE RESURRECTION. 

Quin age, et horrentem commixtis igne tenebris 
Jam videas scenam ; multo hie stagnantia fueo 
Moenia, flagrantem liquefaeto sulphure rivum 
Eingunt, et falsus tanta arte accenditur Ignis, 
Ut toti metuas tabulse, ne flamma per omne 
Livida serpat opus, tenuesque absumpta recedat 
Pictura in cineres, propriis peritura favillis. 

Next behold a scene of lurid darkness mixed with 
flashes of vivid fire : a river of liquid sulphur that blazes 
as it flows through the murky abyss. So striking is the 
artificial light heightened by contrast, that you are made 
afraid lest the picture itself should ignite, and perish 
amidst its own ashes. 

The Latin lines are from a description by Addison, in the Musce An- 
glicancB, of the altar-piece of Magdalene College, Oxford. The poem 
contains a representation of Waynflete, the founder of the college, who is 
represented, perhaps reprehensibly, by Addison, as fixing undaunted eyes 
upon his Judge. 

Irati innocuas securus Numinis iras 
Aspicit, impavidosque in Judice figit ocellos. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 253 

X. 

PICTURE OF VENUS ANADYOMENE. 

Emersam pelagi nuper genitalibus undis 

Cypria Apellei cerne laboris opus. 
Ut complexa manu madidos salis sequore crines, 

Humidulis spumas stringit utraque comis. 
Jam tibi nos, Cypri, Juno inquit et innuba Pallas, 

Cedimus, et formaB prsemia deferimus. 

"When from the bosom of her parent flood 

She rose refulgent with th' encircling brine, 

Apelles saw Cytherea's form divine, 
And fixed her breathing image where it stood. 
Those graceful hands entwined, that wring the spray 

From her ambrosial hair, proclaim the truth ; 
Those speaking eyes where amorous lightnings play, 

Those swelling heavens, the harbingers of youth : 
Juno and Pallas look with fond amaze. 
And yield submission in the conscious gaze. 

This picture was the masterpiece of Apelles, the most celebrated of 
the Grecian painters, a contemporary of Alexander the Great, who forbad 
any one else in his dominions to paint his likeness. The goddess was 
represented wringing her hair, and the falling drops of water made a 
transparent silver veil around her form. This picture was painted for the 
temple of uEsculapius at Cos, and was afterwards placed by Augustus in 
the temple which he dedicated to Julius Caesar. The lower part being 
injured, no one could be found competent to repair it. As it continued 
to decay, Nero had a copy of it taken by Dorotheus. There is an 
ancient tradition that the Venus Anadyomene was designed after the 
model of Camaspe, the mistress of Alexander the Great, who permitted 
her to be copied without her drapery, by his favourite artist ; and that in 
the progress of the picture Apelles fell in love with Camaspe. This is 
the subject of one of the best plays of the ante-Shaksperian dramatist 
Lyly. " Apelles's Venus," writes Fuseli, " or rather the personification of 
the Birth-day of Love, was the wonder of art, the despair of artists; whose 
outline baflSed every attempt at emendation, whilst imitation shrunk 
from the purity, the force, the brilliancy, the evanescent gradations of her 
tmts." 

Cicero, Varro, Columella, Ovid, Pliny the elder, and other Roman 



254 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

writers, bestowed unmeasured praise on Apelles's paintings, especially his 
Venus Anadyomene. Pliny mentions of Apelles, that on one occasion 
he had sailed to Rhodes eager to meet Protogenes. Upon landing, he 
went straight to that artist's studio. Protogenes was absent, but a large 
pannel, ready to be painted on, hung in the studio. Apelles seized the 
pencil, and drew an exceedingly thin coloured line on the pannel, by 
which Protogenes, on his return, at once guessed who had been his visitor, 
and in his turn drew a still thinner line upon the former. When Apel- 
les came again, and saw the lines, ashamed of being defeated, he drew a 
third hne upon that of Protogenes, so as to leave no room for more 
minute division. PHny describes the three hnes as almost imperceptible 
from their thinness. The pannel was preserved and carried to Rome, 
where it remained, exciting more wonder than all the works of art in the 
palace of the Ceesars, until it was destroyed by fire with that edifice. 
Fuseli writes on the subject of these famous lines : " What those lines were, 
drawn with nearly miraculous subtlety in different colours, one upon the 
other, or rather within the other, it would be equally unavailing and use- 
less to inquire : but the corollaries we may deduce from the contest are 
obviously these : that the schools of Oreece recognised all one elemental 
principle ; that acuteness and fidehty of eye, and obedience of hand, 
form precision, precision proportion, proportion beauty; that it is the 
' nttle more or less,' imperceptible to vulgar eyes, which constitutes grace, 
and establishes the superiority of one artist over another ; that the know- 
ledge of the degrees of things presupposes a perfect knowledge of the 
things themselves ; that colour, grace, and taste, are ornaments, not sub- 
stitutes of form, expression, and character, and when they usurp that title, 
degenerate into splendid faults. Such were the principles on which 
Apelles formed his Venus." 



XI. 

TIMOMACHUS'S PICTURE OF MEDEA. 

(A) 
Quod natos peritura ferox Medaea moratur, 

Prsestitit hoc magni dextera Timomachi. 
Tardat amor facinus, strictum dolor incitat ensem, 

Vult, non vult natos perdere et ipsa suos. 

Timomachus Medea's image made, 
Which all her sweetness, all her love display'd : 
She lifts the sword, assents, and yet refuses. 
At once to slay and save the Mother chooses. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 255 

(B) 

En, ubi Medea3 varius dolor sestuat ore, 

Jamque animum nati, jamque raaritus, habent ! 

Succenset, miseret, medio exardescit amore, 
Dum furor inque oeulo gutta minante tremit. 

Cernis adhue dubiam ; quid enim ? licet impiae matris 
Colehidos, at non sit dextera Timomachi. 

The fell Medea's soul to trace 
Its conflict waging in her face, 
To paint the wife's, the mother's mind. 
At once to hate and love inclin'd, 
Timomachus, might task thy skill, 
Yet could thy hand its part fulfil ; 
Pity and rage are mingling here. 
The menace struggling with the tear. 
Painter, the murderous thought we see : 
Enough ! The deed beseems not thee. 

The first Latin epigram is by a modern Italian poet, the second is a 
translation from the Greek by Gray. The English versions are from Dr 
Wellesley's Anthologia Polyglotta; there is another pretty version of the 
last epigram in Mrs Calcott's Essays. The hesitation of Medea is repre- 
sented with considerable dramatic power by Corneille. 

Medee seule. 
Est-ce assez, ma vengeance, est-ce assez de deux morts ? 
Consulte avec loisir tes plus ardens transports, 
Des bras de mon perfide arracher une femme, 
Est-ce pour assouvir les fureurs de mon ame ? 
Que n'a-t-elle deja des enfans de Jason, 
Sur qui plus pleinement venger sa trahison? 
Supleons-y des miens, immolons avec joie 
Ceux qu'a me dire adieu Creiise me renvoie ; 
Nature, je le puit sans violer ta loi ; 
Us viennent de sa part, et ne sent plus a moi. 
Mais ils sent innocens : aussi Tetait mon frere : 
lis sons trop criminels d'avoir Jason pour pere ; 
II faut que leur trepas redouble son tourment ; 
II faut qu'il soufre en pere, aussi-bien qu'en amant. 
Mais quoi ! J'ai beau centre eux animer mon audace, 
La pitie la combat et se met en sa place ; 



256 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Puis cedant tout-a-coup la place a ma fureur, 
J'adore les projets qui me faisaient horreur : 
De I'amour aussi-tot je passe a la colere, 
Des sentimens de femme aux tendresses de mere. 

Cessez dorenavant, pensers irresolus, 
D'epargner des enfans que je ne verrai plus. 
Chers fruits de mon amour, si je vous ai fait naitre, 
Ce n'est pas seulement pour caresser un traitre, 
II me prive de vous, et je Ten Tai priver. 
Mais ma pitie renait, et revient me braver; 
Je n'execute rien, et mon ame eperdiie 
Entre deux passions demeure suspendiie. 
N'en deliberons plus, mon bras en resoudra. 
Je vous pers, mes enfans, mais Jason vous perdra, 
II ne vous verra plus. Creon sort tout en rage ; 
AUons a son trepas joindre ce triste ouvrage. 

The conversation between Euripides's Medea and the chorus, to whom 
she confides her mental conflict, may seem to modern apprehensions a 
very unnatural scene : but a Grecian audience had, probably, imagina- 
tions trained to regard the presence of a chorus merely as a convenient 
channel for the communication of sentiment. 

Timomachus's picture, representing the hesitation of Medea when on 
the point of killing her children, is celebrated by Cicero, Pliny, and 
Plutarch. It was executed in encaustic. Julius Csesar, in whose time the 
artist is supposed to have lived, purchased it, and placed it as a dedica- 
tory offering in the temple of Venus Genetrix. Numerous Greek epigrams 
were composed on the subject of this picture, and a copy of it, as is sup- 
posed, was found at Pompeii. Lucian, an eye-witness, describes the 
picture as representing that " the little ones, unconscious of their fate, sit 
with smiling countenances, and while they see their mother holding the 
sword over them, they seem pleased and happy." 

This picture, that of Timanthes representing the sacrifice of Iphigenia, 
(which has been noticed in a preceding chapter,) and Aristides's picture of 
the half- slain mother shuddering lest the eager babe should suck the 
blood from her palsied nipple, are the three specimens of ancient art 
most celebrated for their picturesque effect, for conveying more impres- 
sions than meet the eye, for the application of the refinements of art 
not merely to the senses, but to the mind. 

The balancing of conflicting passions of revenge and pity, has, on 
several occasions, given scope to the highest talents of poets. On this 
subject nothing can surpass the vacillation of Othello, when on the point 
of smothering Desdemona. In Greek tragedy, Orestes putting to death 
his mother, with the aid of Electra, afforded scope for the exhibition of 
similar sentiments. Ovid's description of Altha3a, when hesitating to 
cast into the fire the fatal brand, on the preservation of which the life of 



IV.] THE ARTS. 257 

her son Meleager depended, is among the finest specimens of that poet's 
genius : 

Ah ! whither am I hurried ? Ah ! forgive, 
Ye shades, and let your sister's issue Hve ; 
A mother cannot give him death, though he 
Deserves it, he deserves it not from me. 

Then shall th' unpunish'd wretch insult the slain, 
Triumphant live, nor only live but reign? 
While you, thin shades, the sport of winds, are toss'd 
O'er dreary plains, or tread the burning coast. 
I cannot, cannot bear; 'tis past, 'tis done; 
Perish this impious, this detested son. 
Perish his sire, and perish I withal, 
And let the house's heir, and the hop'd kingdom, fall. 

Where is the mother fled, her pious love, 
And where the pains, with which ten months I strove? 
Ah! had'st thou died, my son, in infant years. 
Thy little hearse had been bedew'd with tears. 

Thou liVst by me, to me thy breath resign. 
Mine is the merit, the demerit thine; 
Thy life, by double title, I require, 
Once giv'n at birth, and once preserved from fire : 
One murder pay, or add one murder more. 
And me to them, who fell by thee, restore. 

I would, but cannot ; my son's image stands 
Before my sight ; and now their angry hands 
My brothers hold, and vengeance these exact, 
This pleads compassion, and repents the fact. 

He pleads in vain, and I pronounce his doom. 
My brothers, though unjustly, shall o'ercome ; 
But having paid their injur'd ghosts their due. 
My son requires my death, and mine shall his pursue. 

At this, for the last time, she lifts her hand. 
Averts her eyes, and, half unwilling, drops the brand ! 
The brand, amid the flaming fuel thrown. 
Or drew, or seem'd to draw, a dying groan ; 
The fires themselves but faintly lick'd their prey. 
Then loath'd their impious food, and would have shrunk away. 

An exhibition of the like mental strife occurs in Corneille's play of 
Les Horaces; but more strikingly in that scene of The Cid, in which 
Chimene's heart is torn by opposite passions, on her lover having killed 
her father. At last she concludes : 

Je cours sans balancer ou mon honneur m'oblige, 
Rodrigue m'est bien cher, son interet m'afilige, 

17 



258 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Cii. 

Mon coeur prend son parti ; mais malgre son eflFort, 
Je sais qui je suis, et que mon pere est mort. 

This was the play against which Cardinal Richelieu instigated the 
French Academy to write a severe criticism ; but, according to Boileau, 
it was outvoted by the suffrages of all Paris : 

En vain centre le Cid un Ministre se ligue, 
Tout Paris pour Chimene a les yeux de Rodrigue. 



XII. 
PICTURE OF CAMOMUS'S SON. 

Effigiem tantum pueri pictura Camoni 
Servat, et infantis prima figura manet. 

riorentes nulla signavit imagine vultus, 
Dum timet ora pius muta videre pater. 

The Father of Camomus keeps only a picture of his 
Son representing him when a boy : he has never sought an 
image of that son as he appeared in manhood. The affec- 
tionate Father could not have endured to look on the last 
traits of his Son's countenance. 

Martial has two epigrams on this subject. It would seem that for 
some reason, a father who had a picture of his son drawn after that son's 
decease, preferred that it should be a representation of the son when he 
was a youth, to representing him like what he was when he died. Pos- 
sibly the son's countenance may have been wasted by lingering malady ; 
or the father may have been better satisfied with his son's conduct when 
a boy than in after life. The following lines were addressed to his chil- 
dren by Boucher, author of Les Mois, who had his picture taken when he 
was on the point of being guillotined, by order of Robespierre : 
Ne vous etonnez pas, objets charmans et doux. 

Si quelqu'air de tristesse obscur9it mon visage, 
Lorsqu'un savant crayon desinait cette image. 
On dressait I'echafaud, et je pensais a vous ! 



IV.] THE ARTS. 259 

XIII. 
ANCIENT PICTURE OF A LAP-DOG. 

Issa est passere nequior Catulli. 
Issa est purior osculo columbae. 
Issa est blandior omnibus puellis. 
Issa est carior Indieis lapillis. 
Issa est delicise cateUa Publii. 
Hane tu, si queritur, loqui putabis. 
Sentit tristitiamque gaudiumque. 
CoUo nixa cubat, eapitque somnos, 
Ut suspiria nulla sentiantur, 
Hane ne lux rapiat suprema totam, 
Picta Publius exprimit tabella, 
In qua tarn similem videbis Issam, 
Ut sit tarn similis sibi nee ipsa. 
Issam denique pone cum tabella : 
Aut utramque putabis esse veram, 
Aut utramque putabis esse pietam. 

Issa is more frolicsome than the renowned Sparrow of 
Catullus. Issa is purer than the kiss of a turtle-dove : 
Issa is more bland than every damsel : Issa is more pre- 
cious than Indian gems: Issa is the beloved lap-dog of 
Publius. If he complains, Issa murmurs an echo to his 
voice : grieves when he is sad ; rejoices when he is merry : 
lies crouched upon his neck, and there slumbers with a 
noiseless breath. Lest fatal destiny should snatch her en- 
tirely away, Publius has had a picture made of her, in 
which you may behold a likeness of Issa as true as nature 
itself. Only place Issa and her picture side by side ; you 
would declare that both must be true, or that both must 
be painted. 

Elphinstone, who has translated Martial from beginning to end into 
English verse, has been sometimes resorted to for the purposes of the 
present work : he is, however, now and then too bad for any literary use, 
especially where he familiarly shortens names for the sake of his rhymes, 

17—2 



260 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

as Pub. for Publius, and the like. For example, he renders the fifth line 
of the above epigram, thus : 

Issa, most enchanting chub ! 

Pup, the darling of my Pub ! 

There is very little to be found in the Latin poets concerning pictures 
of animals. But several ancient paintings are famous for the animals 
introduced into them: as the dog in Polygnotus's painting of the battle 
of Marathon ; the fore- shortening of one of the oxen in a picture of a 
sacrifice by Pausias ; the horse of Apelles, said to have made a real 
horse neigh. A painter of the name of Pyreicus obtained a surname 
from his skill in painting asses bringing vegetables and fruit to market. 
In the house of the tragic poet at Pompeii, the usual caution inscribed in 
the porches of Roman houses, (Cave canem) "Beware the dog," is accom- 
panied by the figure of a fierce dog wrought in mosaic on the pavement. 

The Roman poets have not left us descriptions of the paintings of 
flowers to be compared with Prior's lines on a picture by Verelst : 
When fam'd Verelst this little wonder drew. 
Flora vouchsaf'd the growing work to view: 
Finding the painter's science at a stand. 
The goddess snatch'd the pencil from his hand; 
And finishing the piece, she, smiling, said. 
Behold one work of mine, which ne'er shall fade. 



XIV. 

PICTURE OF TITIAN, AND HIS WIFE, WHO DIED IN 
CHILD-BED. 

Ecce viro, quaa grata suo est, nee pulchrior ulla 
Pignora conjugii ventre pudica gerit. 

Sed tamen, an vivens, an mortua, pieta tabella 
Hsec magni Titiani arte — ta fuit. 

Behold a wife, the happiness of her husband, who car- 
ries to the tomb the pledges of their wedlock : Neverthe- 
less, whether she be living or dead, posterity will know her 
picture for a masterpiece of the art of the Great Titian. 

The original of this picture has not, it is believed, been found ; an 
ancient engraving at Vienna contains the above lines, of which a word in 
the last verse is partly obliterated. Titian is represented as paying 
sedulous attention to his wife, who is enceinte : a skull is introduced, to 
represent the fatal termination of the scene. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 261 

XV. 

HOGARTH'S PICTURES. 

Qui mores hominum improbos, iniquos 
Incidis, nee ineleganter, seri, 
Derisor lepidus, sed et severus, 
Correetor gravis, at nee invenustus ; 
Seu pingis 

-F 'V -^ ^ Tj? 

Jucundissimus omnium fereris 
Nullique artificum secundus, setas 
Quot prsBsens dedit, aut dabit futura. 
Macte O, eia age, macte sis amicus 
Virtuti, vitiique quod notaris 
Pergas pingere, et exhibere coram. 
Censura utilior tua aequiorque 
Omni vel satirarum acerbitate, 
Omni vel rigidissimo cachinno. 

They are the paintings of one who transfers to the 
canvass the manners of guilty or depraved men. His ridi- 
cule is polished, and yet severe : He corrects with gravity, 
and at the same time with grace. Whether he represents 
(here V. Bourne describes particulars of a few of his pic- 
tures). Throughout all these scenes he is the most skilful 
and entertaining artist in the whole annals of his art. Per- 
severe then, O persevere in your adornments of virtue, in 
your reprobatory delineations of vice. Your censure is 
more impartial and beneficial than any satire however 
caustic, than any laugh however sardonic. 

Sir James Macintosh writes of Hogarth, that he was a great master of 
the tragedy and comedy of low life ; that his pictures hare terrific and 
pathetic circumstances, and even scenes : he was a Lillo (author of 
George Barnwell, &c.) as well as a Fielding: he resembled Shakspere in 
the versatility of talent, which could be either tragic or comic, and in the 
propensity natural to such a talent, to blend tragic and comic circum- 
stances. The Dutch painters, observes Sir J. Macintosh, painted fami- 
liar and low scenes, but without any particular moral tendency : it is 



262 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

rather the scenery than the history of ordinary life which they represent : 
the Rake's Progress is a novel upon canvass. 

In the great war carried on between Poetry and Painting, the libels 
of Churchill and the caricatures of Hogarth, Churchill thus describes 
Hogarth, after his hand was shaken by palsy, attending Wilkes's trial in 
order to catch a likeness of the writer of Number 45, for the purpose of 
ridicule ; 

Lurking most ruflB.an-like behind a screen, 

So plac'd all things to see, himself unseen ; 

Virtue, with due contempt, saw Hogarth stand, 

The murd'rous pencil in his palsied hand. 

Garrick wrote the following Epitaph on Hogarth for his monument in 
Chiswick churchyard : 

Farewell, great painter of mankind ! 

Who reach'd the noblest point of art ; 
Whose pictured morals chain the mind. 
And through the eye correct the heart. 

If genius fire thee, Reader, stay ; 

If nature touch thee, drop a tear : 
If neither move thee, turn away, 

For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here. 



XVI. 

ENCAUSTIC PAINTING. 

Encaustus Phaethon tabula depictus in hac est. 
Quid tibi vis, dipyron qui Phaethonta facis. 

We have here a picture of Phaeton executed in en- 
caustic : It is very inhuman thus to burn him a second 
time. 

There were two distinct classes of painting practised by the ancients ; 
in water-colours and in wax. Of the latter, the mode most esteemed was 
termed encaustic' Plutarch mentions that this was the most durable of 
all methods of painting. Pliny describes encaustic as the process of burn- 
ing in a picture after it was painted with wax- colours. Sometimes a pic- 
ture was painted in the common way, and was covered with a varnish of 
melted wax laid on warm with a brush. Sometimes the colours were 
mixed up with melted wax and the mixture used whilst warm. Some- 



IV.] THE ARTS. 263 

times, particularly where the painting was on ivory, the colours were 
burnt in by means of a heating instrument. (For further particulars con- 
cerning encaustic painting, see Smith's Dictionary of Roman Antiquities, 
Art. Pictura ; Pliny's Natural History ; Mentz's Treatise on Encaustic 
Painting; an Article in the Philosophical Transactions by Colebroke.) 
It was common for encaustic painters to inscribe their works thus, "Nicias 
burnt it in" (encausticed it). Some modern attempts for reviving the art 
of encaustic are to be seen in the palaces of the King of Bavaria, and of 
the Grand Duke of Weimar. A dining-room in the palace at Munich is 
painted with encaustic, representing the Life of Anacreon. 



XVII. 

PAINTING IN GLASS OF THE NATIVITY. 

Quin cerne tandem, qua superam Vitri 
Illustrat Oram Luminis aurei 

Orbis eoruscans, En I stupendum 
Ardet opus radiante flamma I 

Videtis ? an me Pietor amabili 
Eludit umbra ? Jam videor saeras 
Errare per sedes Piorum, 
Et rutili spatia ampla eoeli. 

Qua Lueis almae eopia fertilis, 
Ceu lympha puris vitrea fontibus 
Manans, inexhaustos perenni 
Dat radios fluitare rivo. 

Quem, Pietor, Artis difficilem gradum 
Timebis? aut quos non calamus tuus 
Pelix vel in Vitro colores 
Expediet, teretive panno ; 

Qui clara cceli lumina per sacram 
Fudit Fenestram ? Nunc minus indigent 
Phoebi renascentis, minusque 

Terapla nigras metuunt procellas. 

Behold now the upper part of the glass, how it is 
illumined by the golden orb of the Sun ! how the wonderful 



264: GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch, 

work blazes with radiant flames ! Do I see, or does the 
Painter entrance me in a bright vision, as I seem to be- 
hold the habitations of the justified in heaven ; what place 
those copious streams of light appear to inundate, as if they 
flowed from an inexhaustible fountain. Painter ! in the 
eonfidence of thy daring art you triumphed above every 
difficulty of your materials, and have diffused over glass 
the colours which tincture the skies. This astonishing win- 
dow sheds a brilliant religious light even when the atmo- 
sphere is enveloped by tempestuous clouds. 

The Latin lines are from a description, in the Musce Anglicance, of a 
painted window belonging to Christ Church, Oxford. The Ode appropri- 
ately ends with a prayer deprecatory of the return of those days of fanati- 
cism in which our ecclesiastical ornaments suffered demolition and spoli- 
ation. Whether the artist may have attempted a subject which is more 
within the legitimate province of the oil-painter, may deserve considera- 
tion. According to a recent ingenious writer on the subject of painting 
on glass, the chief excellence of a glass- painting is its translucency, as it 
possesses a power of transmitting light in a far greater degree than any 
other species of painting, and is able to display effects of light and colour 
with a brilliancy and vividness quite unapproachable by any other means. 
But the diaphonous quality of glass-painting is the source of defects 
arising from the limited scale of colour and of transparent shadow, of 
which its inherent flatness is a necessary result. It is incapable of nice 
gradations of colour, and of light and shade, which are indispensable for 
the close imitation of nature, or for producing the full effect of distance 
and atmosphere. Thus glass-painting is not adapted for landscapes, or 
perspective views of interiors, or foreshortening, or where, besides figures 
in the foreground, there are distant groups. {Hints on Glass-Painting, by 
an Amateur. The writer relates interesting particulars concerning several 
well-known specimens in public edifices. See also Fromberg on Glass- 
Painting, translated by Mr Clarke.) 

There is a remarkable trial, in the Star-chamber, of a gentleman, who 
was recorder of Salisbury, for wilfully breaking a church-window, in 
which was painted a picture of the creation, into which was introduced a 
figure of the Supreme Being. He was sentenced to pay a fine of £500, 
and to make acknowledgement of his offence before the bishop of the 
diocese, and such persons as the bishop should think fit to assemble on 
the occasion. A much more severe sentence was proposed; but, on 
taking the votes, it was found that there were nine voices for it, and nine 
against it. The proceeding is principally curious as it bears upon recent 
controversies in the Church, in regard to which Laud's speech concerning 
pictures and other decorations of churches will be found highly into- 



IV.] THE ARTS. 265 

resting. As regards the fanatical demolition of works of art, of a real or 
supposed religious character, there are some curious poetical notices 
among the F&rcy Eeliques. 



XVIII. 

MADAME SCHURMANS. 
(A Model in Wax.) 



Non mihi propositum est humanam eludere sortem, 
Aut vultus solido seulpere in sere meos : 

Hanc nostram effigiem, quam cera expressimus, ecce 
Materiae fragili mox peritura, damus. 

I do not propose for myself any life beyond that ordi- 
narily allotted to mortals ; and so I have not made a brazen 
image of myself. Behold, I have modelled my own face in 
wax ; thus shewing that I have chosen a fragile material 
for representing my form ; the form of one who must her- 
self soon perish. 

Martial has an Epigram concerning a waxen statue, to which he ap- 
plies the epithet, vivida cera, the vivid or living wax. Those Romans who 
had the peculiar privilege of having the images of their ancestors, kept 
them in a particular apartment of the house, called the Atrium : these 
images were usually made of wax. 



XIX. 



TEARS OF A PAINTER. 



Infantem audivit puerum, sua gaudia, Apelles 

Intempestivo fato obiise diem. 
Ille, licet tristi perculsus imagine mortis, 

Proferri in medium corpus inane jubet. 
Et calamum, et succos poscens, " Hos accipe luctus, 

Moerorem hunc," dixit, " nate, parentis habe." 



266 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Dixit ; et, ut clausit, clauses depinxit ocellos ; 

Officio pariter fidus utrique pater : 
Frontemque, et crines, nee adhue pallentia formans 

Oscula, adumbravit lugubre pictor opus. 
Perge, parens, moerendo tuos expendere luctus ; 

Nondum opus absolvit triste suprema manus. 
Vidit adhuc molles genitor super oscula risus ; 

Vidit adhuc veneres irrubuisse genis : 
Et teneras raptim veneres, blandosque lepores, 

Et tacitos risus transtulit in tabulam. 
Pingendo desiste tuum signare dolorem ; 

Filioli longum vivet imago tui : 
Vivet, et aeterna vives tu laude ; nee arte 

Vincendus pictor, nee pietate pater. 

Apelles, hearing that his boy 
Had just expired — his only joy ! 
Although the sight with anguish tore him. 
Bade place his dear remains before him. 
He seized his brush, — his colours spread : 
And — " Oh ! my child, accept," — he said, 
" ('Tis all that I can now bestow,) 
" This tribute of a father's woe !" 
Then, faithful to the twofold part. 
Both of his feelings and his art. 
He closed his eyes with tender care, 
And form'd at once a fellow-pair. 
His brow with amber locks beset, 
And lips, he drew, — not livid yet ; 
And shaded that which he had done 
To a just image of his son. 

Thus far is well. But view again 
The cause of thy paternal pain ! 
Thy melancholy task fulfil I 
It needs the last, last touches still. 
Again his pencil's powers he tries. 
For on his lips a smile he spies ; 
And still his cheek unfaded shows 
The deepest damask of the rose. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 267 

Then, heedful of the finished whole, 
With fondest eagerness he stole. 
Till scarce himself distinctly knew 
The cherub copied from the true. 

Now, painter, cease ! thy task is done. 
Long lives this image of thy son ; 
Nor short-lived shall thy glory prove, 
Or of thy labour, or thy love. 

The Latin is by Vincent Bourne : the English is by Cowper. 



XX. 

PICTURE OF ECHO. 



Vane, quid affectas faciem mihi ponere, pictor, 

Ignotamque oculis soUicitare Deam ? 
Aeris et linguae sum filia, mater inanis 

Judicii, vocem quae, sine mente, gero. 
Extremos pereunte modos a fine reducens, 

Ludificata sequor verba aliena meis. 
Auribus in vestris habito penetrabilis Echo, 

Et si vis similem pingere, pinge sonum. 

Why paint the face of Her who face hath none : 

Who cannot see your picture, when 'tis done ? 

Vain Painter, cease ! for truly I declare, 

A Tongue my Father was, my Mother, Air. 

My Child, Delusion. Though a voice I've got, 

A mind to govern it was ne'er my lot. 

Still with each last-dropt word I love to play, 

A mimic utterer of half you say. 

I live in what you hear, not what you see : 

If you a Sound can paint, why, then, paint me. 

The Latin is by Ausonius : the version from a ship-newspaper. Eras- 
mus, and Butler, in his Hudihras, have availed themselves of echoes for 
the purpose of comic humour. But Milton in his Comus, and Ben Jonson 
in his Masques f have adorned the " Sweet Queen of Parly" with some of 
the most precious gems of English song. 



268 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXI. 

THE LAOCOOK 

Ecce alto terrae e cumulo ingentisque ruinae 

Visceribus iterum reducem longinqua reduxit 

Laocoonta dies : aulis regalibus olim 

Qui stetit, atque tuos ornabat, Tite, penates : 

Divinse simulacrum artis : nee docta vetustas 

Nobilius spectabat opus ; nunc alta revisit 

Exemptum tenebris redivivas mcenia Romse. 

Quid primum summumve loquar ? miserumne parentem 

Et prolem geminam ? an sinuatos flexibus angues 

Terribili aspectu ? caudasque, irasque draconum, 

Vulneraque, et veros, saxo moriente, dolores ? 

Horret ad hsoc animus, mutaque ab imagine pulsat 

Pectora, non parvo pietas commixta tremori. 

Prolixum vivi spiris glomerantur in orbem 

Ardentes colubri, et sinuosis orbibus oram, 

Ternaque multiplici constringunt corpora nexu. 

Vix oculi sufferre valent crudele tuendo 

Exitium, casusque feros micat alter, et ipsum 

Laocoonta petit, totumque infraque, supraque 

Implicat, et rabido tandem ferit ilia morsu. 

Connexum refugit corpus, torquentia sese 

Membra, latusque retro sinuatum a vulnere cernas. 

lUe dolore acri, et laniatu impulsus acerbo 

Dat gemitum ingentem, crudosque avellere dentes 

Connixus, Isevam impatiens ad terga chelydri 

Objicit : intendunt nervi, coUectaque ab omni 

Corpore vis frustra summis conatibus instat. 

Ferre nequit rabiem, et de vulnere murmur anhelum est. 

At serpens lapsu crebro redeunte subintrat 

Lubricus, intortoque ligat genua infima nodo. 

Crus tumet, obsepto turgent vitalia pulsu, 

Liventesque atro distendunt sanguine venas. 

Nee minus in natos eadem vis effera sasvit, 

Amplexuque angit rabido, miserandaque membra 

Dilacerat : jamque alterius depasta cruentum 



IV.] THE ARTS. 269 

Pectus, suprema genitorem voce cientis, 
Circunjectu orbis, validoque volumine fulcit. 
Alter adhuc, nullo violatus corpora morsu, 
Dum parat adducta caudam divellere planta, 
Horret ad aspectum miseri patris, hseret in illo : 
Et jam jam ingentes fletus, lacrymasque cadentes 
Anceps in dubio retinet timor : ergo perenni 
Qui tantum statuistis opus jam laude nitentes, 
Artifices magni (quanquam et melioribus actis 
Quaeritur geternum nomen, multoque licebat 
Clarius ingenium venturse tradere famse) 
Attamen ad laudem quaecunque oblata facultas, 
Egregium banc rapere, et summa ad fastigia niti. 
Vos rigidum lapidem vivis animare figuris 
Eximii, et vivos spiranti in marmore sensus 
Inserere adspicimus, motumque iramque doloremque : 
Et pene audimus gemitus ; vos obtulit olim 
Clara Ehodos : vestrae jacuerunt artis honores 
Tempore ab immenso, quos rursum in luce secunda 
Roma videt, celebratque frequens : operisque vetusti 
Gratia parta recens. Quanto praestantius ergo est 
Ingenio, aut quovis excendere fata labore, 
Quam fastus, et opes, et inanem extendere luxum. 

Turning to the Vatican, go see 
Laocoon's torture dignifying pain, 
A father's love, and mortal's agony. 
With an immortal's patience blending : — vain 
The struggle ; vain against the coiling strain 
And gripe, and deepening of the dragon's grasp 
The old man's clench ; the long envenom'd chain 
Rivets the living links ; — the enormous asp 
Enforces pang on pang, and stifles gasp on gasp. 



The Latin is by Sadolet, secretary of Leo X. The English is by Lord 
Byron. Sadolet enters into the histoiy of the statue; relating that it 
■was made at Rhodes, and was found among the ruins of the baths of 
Titus. The statue was discovered by Felice de Fredis, a Roman, to 
whom Pope Julius II. granted a very considerable pension, by way of 



270 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

reward. His claim to the discovery is perpetuated by an inscription on 
his tomb: 

Felice de Fredis 

Qui ob proprias virtutes, 

Et repertum Laocoontis divinum quod 

In Vatican© cernes fere 

Respirans simulacrum, 

Immortalitatem meruit. 

Anno Domini MDXXVIII. 

Felice de Fredis, who on account of his private virtues, and for hav- 
ing discovered that divine statue of Laocoon, which you may behold in 
the Vatican almost breathing with life, deserved immortality. 

The elder Pliny says of the Laocoon, Opus omnibus pictures© et statu- 
arise artis prseferendum. Lib. xxxvi. c. 5. "A work more excellent than any 
other production either of the art of painting or of statuary." Pliny has 
preserved the names of the three sculptors of the Laocoon ; it would seem 
to have been executed by a father and his two sons, during the reign of 
Augustus. Rhodes, next to Athens, was the most famous school of ancient 
art, and has been immortalized as well by this statue as by its Colossus. 
The Roman conquerors took away three thousand statues from Rhodes. 
Michael Angelo and Bernini attempted to restore in marble the arm of 
the principal figure of the group of the Laocoon without success. 

The statue is thus described by Winckelmann : 

" The Laocoon," says Winckelmann, " offers to us the spectacle of 
nature plunged into the deepest affliction under the image of a man, who 
exerts, against its attack, all the powers of his soul. While his sufferings 
enlarge his muscles, and contract his nerves, you behold his mind strongly 
pictured on his wrinkled forehead ; his bosom oppressed by an impeded 
respiration, and the most distressing restraint, rise with vehemence to 
enclose and concentrate the agony by which it is agitated. The groans 
that he stifles, and the breath he confines, distend his very frame. Not- 
withstanding which, he appears to be less affected by his own affliction 
than that of his children ; who raise their eyes towards him, and implore 
his assistance in vain. The paternal tenderness of the Laocoon is mani- 
fest in his piteous looks ; his countenance expresses moans, not cries ; his 
eyes, directed towards heaven, supplicates celestial aid. His mouth ex- 
presses the pangs and indignation occasioned by an unjust chastisement. 
This double sensation swells the nose, and discloses itself in his enlarged 
nostrils. Beneath his forehead is rendered, with the utmost fidelity, the 
struggle between grief and resistance ; the one makes him elevate his eye- 
brows ; the other, the lids of his eyes. The artist being incapable of 
embellishing nature, has contented himself by giving her more extension, 
variety, and force. Where the greatest suffering exists, the greatest 
beauties are observable. The left side, into which the serpent darts its 



IV.] THE ARTS. 271 

venom by its bite, is the part that apparently suffers most, from its 
approximation to the heart ; and this part of the statue may be reckoned 
a prodigy of art." 

Lessing, in his treatise on the limits of poetry and painting, considers 
that Virgil, in his description of Laocoon, and the Rhodian artists, both 
copied from some Greek poem which is lost ; and that it is more probable 
that the artists imitated Virgil, than that he took the group for his model. 
Lessing points out the necessities of art which may have induced the sculp- 
tors to make variations from the narrative of the poet : as in transferring 
the foldings of the serpents from the throat and waist to the legs and feet ; 
laying aside the sacred fillets from Laocoon's forehead, and putting off 
his sacerdotal dress at the moment he was performing a solemn sacrifice. 
The artists were thus enabled to represent the painful contractions of the 
abdomen, and to treat the brow as the seat of expression. Goethe, in 
his lectures on Art, treats of the Laocoon, and dwells on the distinction 
between its object considered as a final end in the hands of the artists, 
whereas, in Virgil, the catastrophe is used only as a means, and by way of 
a rhetorical argument for the introduction of the Trojan horse into the 
city. Flaxman observes that the group of the Laocoon is " composed in a 
very noble concatenation of lines in three principal views. The children's 
appeal to the father, and the father's to the gods, is highly pathetic : the 
convulsed rise of the youngest son from the ground is the most electric 
circumstance in the whole sentiment." 

A number of friends had one day met in the painting-room of An- 
nibal Carracci, among whom was his brother Augustin, whose pride it was 
to be thought as distinguished for his skill in poetry, as Annibal was for his 
skill in painting. Augustin had just arrived from Rome, and after praising 
gTeatly the monuments he had seen there of ancient sculpture, he enlarged 
particularly on the beauty of the Laocoon. Annibal neither said any- 
thing, nor seemed to pay any attention to the eloquence of his brother, 
while every other person present was listening with the most intense inte- 
rest. He even turned aside, and as if he had nothing better to do, began 
with a careless air to exercise his pencil on the wall. Augustin, piqued at 
his brother's apparent indifference, called out to him, and asked, ' Whether 
he did not think the Laocoon was all that he had been representing?* 
Annibal turning round, replied, * Yes, indeed, brother ; and behold there 
what you have been describing.' While Augustin had been talking, An- 
nibal was occupied in sketching on the wall a representation of the admi- 
rable group of statuary which was the subject of eulogium. The sketch 
was happy, and the company loud in the expressions of their admiration. 
Augustin confessed that his brother had fallen on a mode of exhibiting 
the beauties of the work in question, which left far behind any repre- 
sentation he could give in words. Annibal smilingly said, that 'Poets 
painted with words, painters with the pencil.' 



272 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXII. 

THE VENUS OF CNIDOS. 

Vera Venus Cnidiam cum vidit Cyprida, dixit, 

Vidisti nudam me, puto, Praxitele. 
Non vidi, nee fas : sed ferro opus omne polimus. 

Eerrum Gradivi Martis in Arbitrio. 
Qualem igitur domino scierant placuisse Cytheren, 

Talem fecerunt ferrea coela Deum. 

The real Venus, on beholding her effigy at Cnidos, said, 
" O Praxiteles, you must have beheld me disrobed of my 
vestments !" To whom the Sculptor — " I neither have, 
nor dared. But I polished my work with iron that is 
sacred to Mars. My iron tools sculptured such a Venus 
as they knew that Mars was enamoured of." 

There are numerous epigrams in the Greek Anthology concerning the 
Venus of Cnidos. Praxiteles made two marble statues of Venus, of 
which one had drapery and the other not. In his own opinion they were 
of equal value ; and he offered them for sale together at the same price. 
The people of Cos, who had always possessed a character for severe 
decorum, purchased the draped statue, and the people of Cnidos the 
naked one. The Cnidian Venus was regarded, in ancient times, as 
the most perfectly beautiful of the statues of the goddess, and as the 
masterpiece of Praxiteles. Pliny represents it as being generally preferred 
to any other statue of Grecian art, and he mentions that many persons 
made a voyage to Cnidos on purpose to behold it. The Cnidians prized 
this statue so highly, that they refused to part with it to King Nicomedes, 
who offered to purchase it on the terms of paying off the national debt of 
the island. It was afterwards carried to Constantinople, where it perished 
by fire in the reign of Justinian. The temple in which the statue stood 
at Cnidos was so constructed, that the beauties of the statue were made 
apparent to a spectator standing in any part of the building. 

The material of the statue was the purest and most brilliant Parian 
marble. The position of the left hand was the same as that of the 
Venus de Medici, the right hand held some drapery which fell over a 
vase. The face wore a gentle smile, and the expression was considered 
by the ancients to represent the appearance of the goddess at the moment 
when Paris adjudged to her the prize of beauty. But the position of the 
drapery, and the vase, indicate that the artist intended to represent 



lY.] THE ARTS. 273 

Venus, either as entering or quitting a bath. Praxiteles designed his 
statue after the model of the celebrated Phryne. 

The type of this famous statue is preserved in coins of Cnidos, and 
several statues in the Vatican are supposed to be copies of it. It has been 
represented on a medal of Caracalla in the cabinet of France. Discus- 
sions have arisen as to what extent the Venus de Medici is an imita- 
tion of the Cnidian Venus. Cleomenes, the sculptor of the Medicean 
Venus, flourished sometime between the age of Praxiteles and the 
destruction of Corinth, 146 B. c. The silence of the ancients concerning 
this extant statue, which excites the universal admiration of modem 
connoisseurs, is remarkable; and, perhaps, may have been in some 
measure owing to the intense delight taken by the ancients in the Venus 
which is the subject of the epigram in the text. In Flaxman's Lectures on 
Statuary, there is a pictorial representation of the Venus of Cnidos, 
plate 22, as also of the Venus of Cos, plate 23. The precise heights of 
these statues are not given ; that of the Venus de Medici is 4 ft. 11 in. 4 lin. 
A young man was related to have fallen in love with the statue of the 
Venus of Cnidos. The story of Pygmalion and the statue in Ovid's 
Metamorphosis, is a similar testimony to the fidelity of the sculptor's art. 
On this subject the reader may peruse a recent Tourist's description of her 
entrancement before the statue of the Belvidere Apollo. This, however, 
was not the first lady to bestow vehement admiration on that production 
of art, according to Dean Milman : 

Yet, on that form in wild delirious trance, 

With more than reverence gazed the maid of France ; 

Day after day the love-sick dreamer stood, 

With him alone, nor thought it solitude ! 

To cherish grief, her last, her dearest care. 

Her one fond hope — to perish of despair. 

Oft as the shifting light her sight beguiled. 

Blushing she shrank, and thought the marble smiled : 

Oft breathless list'ning heard, or seem'd to hear, 

A voice of music melt upon her ear. 

Slowly she waned, and cold and senseless grown, 

Clos'd her dim eyes, herself benumb'd to stone. 

Yet love in death a sickly strength supplied: 

Once more she gazed, then feebly smiled, and died. 

As the gem in the text is not very pellucid, the following translatidn 
from the Greek, taken from the Polyglot Anthology, may be thought to 
aflPord a more worthy description of the Venus of Cnidos : 

Who gave such life to stone, 

Nor life alone, 
But such a power of love ? 

18 



274 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Who upon earth hath seen 

The Cyprian Queen 
Descended from above ? 

Praxiteles alone 

To lifeless stone 
The charms of Venus gives : 
Else is Olympus left, 

Of her bereft, 
And she in Cnidos lives. 



XXIII. 

POLYCLETUS'S JUNO. 



Juno labor, Polyclete, tuus, et gloria felix, 
Phidiacse cuperent quam meruisse manus, 

Ore nitet tanto, quanto superasset in Ida 
Judice convictas non dubitante Deas. 

Junonem, Polyclete, suam nisi frater amaret, 
Junonem poterat frater amare tuam. 

A Polycletus' peerless glory stands, 
The Juno, that might grace a Phidias' hands : 
Who, in such form, on Ida had surpassed 
The Goddesses convinc'd, the Judge unask'd. 
Did not her Brother love the Queen divine. 
That brother, Polyclete, would glow at thine. 

There is an Essay on this statue written by Bottiger : it was regarded 
as the masterpiece of Polycletus, who flourished at Argos, about the year 
430 B. c. He was a fellow-pupil with Phidias and Myron. He is reported 
to have borne away a prize from Phidias, on an occasion when all the 
first statuaries in Greece compared their abilities in the representation of 
an Amazon. The statue which is mentioned in the text, was placed in the 
temple of Juno, near Argos ; its materials were ivory and gold, and it was 
considered as a rival of Phidias's statues of Minerva and Jupiter. The 
goddess was represented as seated on a throne, her head crowned with a 
garland, on which were worked the Graces and the Hours; one hand 



IV.] THE ARTS. 275 

held a pomegranate, the other a sceptre surmounted by a cuckoo. The 
figure was robed from the waist downwards. It was said to be formed 
according to the description of Homer, who attributes to his Juno ivory 
arms, and large eyes (like those of a bull). A type of this statue is sup- 
posed to be existing in a coin of Argos. 

It is behoved that the Roman artists have not copied Homer in 
appreciating Juno's exposed arms. They usually represent her in the 
garb of a Roman matron, with only her face uncovered. Roman 
Empresses were frequently represented on the reverses of medals in the 
character of Juno wearing this costume. The loveable appearance given 
by Polycletus to his Juno, which is confirmed by Strabo, is not in accord- 
ance with the majestic and terrible description of her by some great poets ; 
but, it has been seen, it is warranted by Homer; and we may collect 
from several antiques, that the ancients, especially the Greeks, had a mild 
Juno and Jupiter, as well as their more severe counterparts. 



XXIV. 
LYSIPPUS' ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 

Fortis Alexandri vulAim Lysippus, et audax 
Expressit pectus ; vis, puto, in sere latet. 

^neus ille Jovem sic compellare videtur ; 
Cessit terra mihi ; Jupiter astra cole. 

Lysippus has represented the countenance, and the 
daring breast of Alexander. A sentiment appears to be 
tacitly conveyed by this Statue. The Hero in brass seems 
to taunt Jove himself, as though he would say, " The Earth 
is mine, Jupiter — mind your stars" 

By a well-known edict Alexander the Great prohibited any artist 
from drawing a portrait of him except Apelles, and from making his 
statue, except Lysippus ; an ukase which was imitated by Queen Eliza- 
beth, who by a warrant directed to her Serjeant Painter, took summary 
means for obviating the mischief " committed by divers unskilful artisans 
in unseendy painting, graving, and printing of her Majesty's person and 
visage, to her Majesty's great offence, and the disgrace of that beautiful 
and magnanimous majesty wherewith God hath blessed her." 

The statue, which is the subject of the above epigram, was supposed to 
be Lysippus's masterpiece. It represented Alexander holding a lance, 

18—2 



276 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

and was considered a companion to Apelles's picture of the Hero, in 
which he was represented wielding a thunderbolt. Plutarch testifies to 
the impression produced upon spectators being the same as that expressed 
in the epigram. Lysippus used to lay by a single piece of gold out of the 
price received for each of his works, and Pliny informs us, that, after his 
death, the number of these pieces was found to be 1500. His works 
were chiefly in bronze, which may have been one of the causes why none 
of them are extant. But there are many copies of them on coins, and it 
may be seen by the text, that the Muses have laboured for their im- 
mortality. 



XXV. 

GROUP OF THE STATUES OF OPPORTUNITY AND 
REPENTANCE. 

Cujus opus? Phidise, qui signum Pallados, ejus 

Quique Jovem fecit : tertia palma ego sum. 
Sum dea, quaB rara, et paucis Occasio nota. 

Quid rotulse insistis ? Stare loco nequeo. 
Quid talaria habes ? Volucris sum : Mercurius quae 

Fortunare solet, tardo ego, cum volui. 
Crine tegis faciem. Cognosci nolo. Sed heus tu 

Occipiti calvo es. Ne tenear fugiens. 
Quse tibi juncta comes ? Dicat tibi. Die, rogo, qua? sis ? 

Sum dea, cui nomen nee Cicero ipse dedit : 
Sum dea, qu8e facti, non factique exigo poenas, 

Nempe ut poeniteat : sic Metanoea vocor. 
Tu modo die, quid agat tecum. Si quando volavi, 

Haec manet : banc retinent, quos ego prseterii. 
Tu quoque, dum rogitas, dum percontando moraris, 

Elapsam dices me tibi de manibus. 

Whose work is this ? Phidias's, that Artist who sculp- 
tured the statue of Minerva, and that of Jove : I am the 
third palm of his genius. I am a Goddess, seldom met 
with, and known only to a few ; my name is Opportunity. 
Why do you rest on a wheel ? Because I never stay in 
one place. Why have you wings ? Because I fly to this 



IV.] THE ARTS. 277 

person and from that person with the swiftness of a bird. 
Why do you cover your face with your hair ? Because I 
do not wish to be recognized. But I observe that the 
back part of your head is bald! It is to avoid being 
detained when I fly away. Who is your companion ? 
She can tell you herself. Who, then, I pray, are you? 
I am a Goddess, for whom even Cicero has not invented a 
Latin name. I am a Goddess, who exacts penalties both 
for what is done and what is not done, causing mortals to 
repent of both. Hence the Greeks called me Metanoea. 
But, O Goddess Opportunity! say, why is Metanoea here 
with you ? Because, whenever I fly away, she stays. 
When I pass by any persons, they retain her. And you, 
my Querist, at the very moment you are loitering here 
propounding your interrogatories, you will say that I have 
escaped out of your hands. 

The Greek and Roman artists, and their sculptors in particular, had 
a method of expressing a variety of moral sentiments by means of a 
sort of rational hieroglyphics, of which the statue that is the subject 
of the text is a remarkable specimen. A very interesting account of the 
ancient moral deities that presided over the virtues of men, and the con- 
duct of human life, illustrated by apposite quotations, and embellished 
with handsome plates, will be found in Spencer's Polymeiis, Book iv. 
Dialogue x. Shakspere, in his Rape of Lucrece, personifies Opportunity. 
Phsedrus thus describes Time in an ancient statue : 

Cursu volucri, pendens in novacula, 

Calvus, comosa fronte, nudo corpore : 

Quem si occuparis, teneas ; elapsum semel 

Non ipse possit Jupiter reprendere. 

Occasionem rerum significat brevem, 

Eflfectus impediret ne segnis mora. 

Finxere Antiqui talem efl&giem Temporis. 

Un homme ayant des ailes, et qui court si vite qu'il pouroit marcher 
sur le trenchant d'un razoir sans se blesser; qui a des cheveux par 
devant, et qui est chauve par derriere, qui a le cors tout nud : qu'on ne 
pent avoir qu'en le prenant, et que Jupiter memo ne pent reprendre lors 
qu'il I'a laisse echaper une fois : nous marque qu'en toutes choses Toca- 
sion est prompte, et passe en un moment. Les Anciens nous ont repre- 
sente le Tems sous la figure de cet homme ; de peur que le retardement 
et la paresse n'empechat Texecution de nos meilleures entreprises. 

The statue which Ausonius attributes to Phidias is considered by 



278 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

several writers to be the work of Lysippus. Ausonius, it is seen, ranks it 
next in order of merit to Phidias's Minerva, and his Jupiter. The Jupiter 
of Phidias, which was placed in the temple of the god, in the sacred 
grove of Olympia, has usually been considered the masterpiece of the 
whole range of Grecian art. His gold and ivory statue of Minerva in 
the Parthenon was the most celebrated of Phidias's works at Athens. 
Among the Elgin marbles are probably many relics of Phidias's genius. 
An enemy of Pericles brought two accusations against Phidias whom he 
patronized, in reference to Minerva's statue. One for peculation, which 
was refuted, as, by the advice of Pericles, the gold had been affixed to 
the statue of Minerva, in a manner that it could be removed, and the 
weight of it examined. The other charge was for impiety, in having 
introduced into the battle of the Amazons in the shield of Minerva, his 
own likeness and that of Pericles, the latter as a bald old man hurling 
a stone with both his hands, himself as a very handsome warrior fighting 
with an Amazon, his face being partly concealed by his hand which held 
an uplifted spear ; so that the artist's likeness could only be recognized 
upon a side view. Upon this latter charge Phidias was cast into prison, 
where he died, as it has been alleged, by poison. 



XXVI. 
VINDEX'S CONVIVIAL STATUE OF HERCULES. 

(A) 
Hie, qui dura sedens porrecto saxa leone 

Mitigat exiguo magnus in aere Deus, 
Quaeque tulit, spectat resupino sidera vultu, 

Cujus Iseva calet robore, dextra mero : 
Non est fama recens, nee nostri gloria eoeli : 

Nobile Lysippi munus opusque vides. 
Hoe habuit numen Pellsei mensa tyranni, 

Qui eito perdomito vietor in orbe jaeet. 
Hune puer ad Libyeas juraverat Hannibal aras : 

Jusserat hie Sullam ponere regna trueem. 
Offensus varise tumidis terroribus aulae, 

Privatos gaudet nune habitare Lares. 
Utque fuit quondam plaeidi eonviva Molorehi, 

Sic voluit doeti Vindieis esse Deus. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 279 

Reclining on a lion's skin spread over the hard marble, 
sits a Great Divinity represented in a small statue. He 
casts his eyes upwards to the heavens which he once sus- 
tained on his shoulders : his left hand grasps an oaken staff, 
his right a goblet of wine. The fame of this statue is not 
recent ; its glory is not of this nation. You see before you 
the noble achievement of Lysippus. This statue once graced 
the table of that Macedonian Tyrant who died only when 
he had no more worlds to conquer. Hannibal, when a 
youth, swore hatred to the Romans upon this statue, at the 
Libyan altars. It bade Sylla to lay down his Dictatorship. 
At length, disgusted with the tumults incident to palaces 
of state, Hercules rejoices in the society of the private 
Lares of Vindex. And as of yore he became the guest of 
the amiable Molorchus, — so now he is well contented with 
the appellation of Vindex's Family- God. 

(B) 
Alciden modo Vindicis rogabam, 
Esset cujus opus laborque felix ? 
Risit (nam solet hoc) levique nutu, 
Graece numquid, ait, poeta, nescis ? 
Inscripta est basis, indicatque nomen. 
Avdiinrov lego, Phidise putavi. 

When late Alcides' self I saw, 

A Vindex' guest, I gaz'd with awe. 

Yet humbly of the God inquired 

What human art he had inspir'd, 

To bid his image stand confest ? 

His Godship scarce his smile supprest. 

And, nodding bland, thus deign'd to speak : 

Poor bardling, dost thou know no Greek? 

Behold the base, and learn to spell : 

Thence wonder and inquiry quell. 

I, blushing, there AYSinHOY scann'd ; 

But thought it had been Phidias' hand. 

Martial considers it a compliment to Lysippus to have mistaken his 
Hercules for the workmanship of Phidias. But Lysippus was more 



280 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

famous for his statues of Hercules than any other sculptor ; many copies 
of these are extant in gems, and the well-known Farnese Hercules of 
Glycon was a copy of a work of Lysippus. Dr Smith, in his Dictionary 
of Roman Antiquities, quotes several authorities for concluding that the 
celebrated Belvidere Torso was an imitation of Vindex's Hercules. Spence 
mentions an extant ancient gem by Adman, which, he conceives, was 
copied from the same statue, at least as regards Hercules's face. 

It will be collected that the statue of Hercules which is the subject of 
the epigrams in the text belonged to an opulent Roman of the name of 
Vindex, who used to place it at his supper-table, seated on a lion-skin. 
It was not a foot high, was made of brass, in one hand holding a goblet, 
in the other a club ; the face was very cheerful. It was fabled to have 
run through a series of the highest fortunes of any statue on record. 
Before it came into the family of the friend of Martial and Statins, it is 
represented to have belonged to Sylla the dictator. It had been previ- 
ously in the possession of Hannibal, and was a particular favourite, and 
fellow-traveller of his, during his campaign in Italy : before that it had 
accompanied Alexander the Great all through his expedition in the East, 
These great men did not carry it about with them for its beauty alone, 
but partly, perhaps, out of devotion, or in order to keep alive a popular 
superstition of the resemblance of their labours to those of Hercules. 
It is seen by some other epigrams of Martial how hard the poet strains 
to establish a resemblance between Hercules and Domitian. So Mark 
Antony traced his descent from Hercules. Shakspere calls him " This 
Herculean Roman." 

Statius wrote a poem (part of his Silvce) containing upwards of a 
hundred verses on Vindex's Hercules. The following lines occur : 

Tantus nonos operi, firmosque inclusa per artus 

Majestas. Deus ille Deus, seseque videndum 

Indulsit, Lysippe, tibi, parvusque videri, 

Sentirique ingens : et cum mirabilis intra 

Stet mensura pedem, tamen exclamare libebit, 

(Si visus per membra feras) hoc pectore pressus 

Vastator Nemees, hsec exitiale ferebant 

Robur et Argoos pangebant brachia remos. 

Hoc spatio tam magna brevi mendacia formse ! 

Quis modus in dextra, quanta experientia docti 

Artificis curtse, pariter gestamina mensse 

Fingere, et ingentes animo versare colossos ! 
Or entre toutes ces choses, THercule de sa maison, ou le genie et la 
Divinite tutelaire de sa table modeste me faisit d'une inclination toute 
particuliere a I'honorer, et je ne me pus lasser de le regarder, tant I'ouvrage 
estoit bien fait, et tant il y avoit de majeste renfermee dans les membres 
solides, et dans toutes les proportions de la Statue. C'est ce Dieu la 
mesmes, 6 Lysippe, qui t'a permis de le considerer, qui a bien voulu qu'on 



I 
1 



IV.] THE ARTS. 281 

le vist en petit, et qu'on se pust facilement imaginer qu'il a de grands 
sentimens : et quoy qu'il se renferme dans la mesure d'un pied, il sera 
neantmoins permis de s'ecrier. (Si vous jettez les yeux sur ses membres) 
le Lion de Nemee fut etoufife centre cette poitrine, ces bras portoient 
une fatale massue, et rompoient les avirons du Navire d'Argos. Une in- 
finite de grands mensonges sent contenus sous une si petite figure. Quelle 
Industrie d'une excellente main ? Quelle marque du S9avoir exquis d'un 
merveilleux Ouvrier ? faire de petites pieces pour servir sur une table, 
et donner en mesme temps I'idee des Colosses ? 



XXVII. 
STATUE OF LUCRETIA. 

Libenter occumbo, mea in praocordia 
Adactum habens ferrum ; juvat mea manu 
Id prasstitisse, quod Viraginum prius 
Nulla ob pudicitiam peregit promptius ; 
Juvat cruorem contueri proprium, 
lUumque verbis execrari asperrimis. 

Sanguen mi acerbius veneno colchico, 
Ex quo canis Stygius, vel Hydra praeferox 
Artus meos eompegit in poenam asperam ; 
Lues flue, ac vetus reverte in toxicum. 
Tabes amara exi ; mihi invisa et gravis, 
Quod feceris corpus nitidum et amabile. 

Nee interim suas monet Lueretia 
Civeis, pudore et castitate semper ut 
Sint prseditse, fidemque servent integram 
Suis maritis, cum sit hsec Mavortii 
Laus magna populi, ut castitate foeminae 
Laetentur, et viris mage ista gloria 
Placere studeant, quam nitore et gratia ; 
Quin id probasse caede vel mea gravi 
Lubet, statim animum purum oportere extrahi 
Ab inquinati corporis custodia. 

Since the vile Eavisher my honour stains, 
What thing of worth or moment now remains I 



282 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Thus cries Lucretia with grief opprest, 

And sheaths a poignant dagger in her breast. 

The Heroine would die ; but you prevent, 

O Giorgion ! her murderous intent. 

You have so painted her, that we conceive 

She in thy canvass will for ever live. 

The Latin is the only extant composition in Latin verse by Leo X. 
The English is from Evelyn's epigrams, on a picture by Giorgione. 
Among the pictures of Charles I. was one of Lucretia stabbing herself, 
by Titian ; a red veil is cast over her face, and a figure of Tarquin stands 
in the background. The picture was appraised and sold for £200. 
There is a Lucretia by Titian which seems to be a portrait of some lady 
of his acquaintance ; it bears the inscription Titianus sibi /aciebat. No- 
thing in poetry or painting on the subject of Lucretia, may be thought 
equal to Ovid's description in his Fasti : 

Eloquar, inquit, 
Eloquar infelix dedecus ipse meum ! 
Quseque potest narrat. Restabant ultima, flevit, 

Et matronales erubuere gense. 
Dant veniant facto genitor conjuxque coacto. 

Quam, dixit, veniam vos datis, ipse nego. 
Nee mora ; celato figit sua pectora ferro : 
Et cadit in patrios sanguinolenta pedes. 
Tunc quoque, jam morions, ne non procumbat honeste, 
Respicit, hsec etiam cura cadentis erat. 

I will proclaim, she says, I will proclaim my own infamy ! And she 
relates as far as she is able : the conclusion remained untold, and a blush 
overspread her matronly cheeks. Her husband and her father protest 
their forgiveness of what could not have been averted. But she replies, 
Although you bestow your pardons upon me, I cannot pardon myself. 
Nor does a moment elapse before she stabs her breast with a dagger 
which she had concealed, and falls at her father's feet bathed in her 
blood. Even as she fell she gave a look round, lest she should fall inde- 
corously ; this seemed the last concern on her mind. 

This last incident in the description of Ovid may remind the reader of 
an interesting account by Pliny of the horrible transaction of the inhuma- 
tion of a Vestal Virgin (Lib. rv. Ep. xi.). He relates that the Vestal Comeha 
Maximilla had been condemned without a hearing by Domitian, who sen- 
tenced her to be buried alive, in order to give celebrity to his reign by 
the spectacle. As she was being led to her punishment she stretched 
forth her hands now to Vesta, and now to the other Deities, and frequently 
repeated the words, " Does Csesar believe me polluted, me, to whose per- 
formance of sacred rites he owes his victories, his triumphs ?" When she 



IV.] THE ARTS. 283 

was descending the steps of the fatal vault, her gown got entangled, and 
she turned herself round to set it in order ; and when the public execu- 
tioner offered his hand to assist her, she started back, aud turned away 
her face from him, as if rejecting from her chaste and pure person a foul 
contamination. Thus, from the very soul of modesty, she seemed soli- 
citous to meet death with decorum. 



XXVIIL 

THE STATUE OF NIOBE. 

Fecerat e viva lapidem me Jupiter ; at me 
Praxiteles vivam reddidit e lapide. 

Jupiter metamorphosed me from a living Being into a 
stone : Praxiteles has, out of that stone, made me again 
alive. 

The Latin is a version, by Gray, from the Greek Anthology: it is 
rather a frigid conceit, not worthy of one of the most admired specimens 
of ancient art. Ausonius has another sorry epigram on Niobe, to whom, 
he says, Praxiteles gave her back everything but sense ; and that she never 
had. It was an undecided question among the ancients whether the 
group representing the destruction of the sons and daughters of Niobe 
was the work of Praxiteles or of Scopas. These two artists stand at 
the head of the second period of perfected art, which is called the latter 
Attic school, in contradistinction to the earlier Attic school of Phidias. 
They excelled in delineations of beauty and gracefulness, as Phidias 
surpassed in ideal majesty, heroic spirit, and religious earnestness. 
Scopas was principally famed for a statue of the Pythian Apollo playing 
on a lyre, celebrated by Propertius, and which was placed by Augustus in 
the temple which he built in honour of Apollo, on the Palatine hill, to 
commemorate the battle of Actium. (See Dictionary of Greek and 
Roman Biography/ and Mythology, which contains a mine of information 
concerning ancient artists and ancient art.) 

The group of Niobe and her children has been the subject of panegy- 
ric, or criticism, in the published travels of most Italian tourists. Mr 
Cockerell, and Mr Bell, for example, have written copious artistical 
remarks upon the subject. The genuine number of the group, whether 
it properly consists of twelve, fourteen, or sixteen statues, and the pro- 



284 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

priety of its arrangement, have excited much controversy. Flaxman 
writes that " the statues of Niobe and her youngest daughter afford an 
example of heroic beauty in mature age. The sentiment is maternal 
affection. She exposes her own life to shield her child from threatened 
destruction. The statues of the several children all possess the same 
heroic beauty, mixed with astonishment, terror, dismay, and death." 
The youngest child is placed in the mother's arms, and chngs to the 
girdle round her waist, whilst the mother is looking up towards heaven. 
The sentiment excited is full of tenderness. Guide made the group of 
Niobe the subject of his particular study. It was discovered in the year 
1583 : it anciently filled the pediment of a temple of Apollo. 

Though the epigram in the text be not a gem of the purest ray, yet 
Ovid, in describing the metamorphosis of Niobe, stands perhaps in more 
favourable contrast with the impassioned sculptor, than Virgil, when 
compared with the rival sculptors of the Laocoon. Niobe's supplications 
for her youngest child seem to give a tongue to the breathing statue : 
and although persons " weeping" themselves " to marble" may appear a 
forced as it has been a frequent conception of English poets, nothing 
seems more natural than such a transition as the details of it are related 
by Ovid. 

Sexque datis letho, diversaque vulnera passis, 
Ultima restabat : quam toto corpore mater 
Tota veste tegens, unam minimamque relinque 
De multis minimam posco, clamavit, et unam! 
Dumque rogat, pro qua rogat, occidit. Orba resedit 
Examines inter natos natasque, virumque : 
Diriguitque malis. NuUos mo vet aura capillos. 
In vultu color est sine sanguine : lumina moestis 
Stant immota genis : nihil est in imagine vivi. 
Ipsa quoque interius cum dure lingua palate 
Congelat, et vense desistunt posse moveri. 
Nee flecti cervix, nee brachia reddere gestus. 
Nee pes ire potest : intra quoque viscera saxum est. 
Flet tamen, et validi circumdata turbine venti 
In patriam rapta est. Ibi fixa cacumine mentis 
Liquitur, et lacrymas etiamnum marmora manant. 

Seven of Niobe's children had thus cruelly perished one after the 
other. Her last daughter was yet surviving. The mother shields her 
with her whole dress, her whole body, and exclaims, O leave me one, 
and the least of them ! Out of many which were mine, leave me but one, 
and that the least of all ! Whilst she supplicates, her last child dies in 
her arms. She sat desolate among the dead bodies of her husband, her 
sons, and her daughters. She became benumbed with her sufferings: 
her cheeks have no longer any colour, her eyes are fixed in one motion- 
less gaze : her very hair seems incapable of being driven by the wind. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 285 

Her tongue is become stiff as if it were frozen, her veins no longer indicate 
any circulation of blood. Her neck cannot be bent ; her arms cannot be 
stretched forth; her foot can no longer stir: tears alone are left her. 
Anon she is fixed immoveably on the top of a mountain, where the marble 
which once was Niobe still drips with her everlasting tears. 



XXIX. 

STATUE OF DOMITIANT AS THE MH^D JUPITER. 

Quis Pallatinos imitatus imagine vultus, 
Phidiacum Latio marmore vicit ebur? 

Haec mundi facies, haec sunt Jovis ora sereni : 
Sic tonat ille deus, cum sine nube tonat. 

Non solam tribuit Pallas tibi, Care, coronam : 
Effigiem domini, quam colis, ilia dedit. 

Who, daring to pourtray th' imperial face. 
In Latian marble stole the Phidian grace ? 
Such is the aspect of the heav'n serene : 
So the God thunders when no cloud is seen. 

In the concluding distich. Martial tells his friend Cams, who, in his 
house, offered sacred rites to a statue of Domitian, in the character of 
the Mild Jupiter, that Minerva, in addition to the rewards which Cams 
had, on other occasions, received from the hands of that goddess, gave 
him the likeness of the emperor who was the object of his worship, and 
which, by her inspiration, surpassed the famous statue of Minerva by 
Phidias in the Parthenon. 

Spence, in his Poly metis (Dialogue vi.), has pointed out distinctions 
between the mild and the terrible Jupiter in ancient poetry, statues, gems, 
and seals. The Mild Jupiter was generally represented in a sitting pos- 
ture, and of white marble, with his hair regular and composed ; whereas 
the statues of the Terrible Jupiter were usually of black marble, in a 
standing posture, and with the hair discomposed. The Capitoline Jupiter 
was seated in a curule chair. Three kinds of lightning were employed 
by ancient sculptors to be held in Jupiter's hand, according to the cha- 
racter in which he was represented. The first was a bundle of flames 
wreathed close together : the second is the same figure, with two trans- 
verse darts of lightning, and sometimes with wings added on each side of 



286 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

it. Such was the device which all the soldiers of the thundering legion (as 
it was called) bore on their shields; it is represented on the Antonine 
and Trajan pillars at Rome. The third kind of thunder is a handful of 
flames all let loose in their utmost fury. The old artists gave Jupiter, if his 
appearance was to be mild and calm, the first sort, held down in his 
hand : if he was represented as punishing, he held up the second sort : 
and, if going to do some exemplary vengeance, he brandished the third 
species, and sometimes had both his hands full of flames. (See the plates 
and poetical illustrations in Spence's Poly metis.) The serene and sweeter 
kind of majesty attributed to Jupiter is represented by Virgil in the first 
JEneid, where he is described as receiving Venus with paternal tender- 
ness: 

OUi subridens hominum sator atque deorum, 

Vultu quo coelum tempestatesque serenat 

Oscula libavit natse. 

In comparing the fierce and cruel tyrant Domitian to the Mild Jupi- 
ter, the sculptor and the poet appear to have anticipated the advice of 
Swift, in his " Directions for making a Birth-day Ode :*' 

Thus your encomium to be strong. 

Must be applied directly wrong : 

A tyrant for his mercy praise. 

And crown a royal dunce with bays. 

A squinting monkey load with charms, 

And paint a coward fierce in arms. 

Is he to avarice inclin'd? 

Extol him for his generous mind : 

For all experience this evinces 

The only art of pleasing princes : 

For princes love you should descant 

On virtues which they know they want. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 287 

XXX. 

STATUE OF DOMITIAN AS HERCULES. 

Herculis in magni vultus descendere, Caesar 

Dignatus Latiaa dat nova templa viae, 
Qua Triviae nemorosa petit dum regna viator, 

Octavum domina marmor ab urbe legit. 
Ante eolebatur votis, et sanguine largo : 

Majorem Aleiden, nunc Minor ipse colit. 
Hunc magnas rogat alter opes, rogat alter honores : 

nii securus vota minora faeit. 

Domitian condescends to assume the countenance of 
the illustrious Hercules, and gives on the occasion to the 
Appian Way a Temple containing a statue of himself in 
the character of Hercules. The traveller meets with it at 
the eighth milestone, just as he emerges from the grove of 
Diana. Before this time Domitian has been addressed with 
common vows and sacrifices : but now Hercules (henceforth 
to be called the lesser Hercules) worships Domitian as the 
greater Divinity. One supplicates the Emperor-Hercules 
for wealth, another for honours : whereas the lesser Her- 
cules takes no offence, if suppliants beg of him smaller 
favours, better suited for an inferior Divinity to be asked 
for, and to grant. 

The Appian Way is called the Queen of Ways by Statius : it was the 
great Southern road out of Rome. Vestiges still remain of the vast 
sums and prodigious labour expended on its construction. The Roman 
mile was about 142 yards less than the English mile. Martial wrote 
several more epigrams on this statue. 

Suetonius writes, that the Emperor Nero having supposed himself to 
have equalled Apollo in music, and the Sun in chariot-driving, resolved, 
in like manner, to imitate the actions of Hercules. For this purpose a 
lion was prepared for him in the theatre, where he appeared naked, and 
in the view of the people killed the wild beast with a club. Plutarch 
mentions of Mark Antony, that he had a noble dignity of countenance, a 
graceful length of beard, a large forehead, an aquiUne nose, and through 
his whole appearance the same manly aspect that we see in the pictures 



288 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

and statues of Hercules. He adds, that there was an ancient tradition 
that Antony's family were descended from Hercules by a son of his, 
named Antseon, and that Antony imitated Hercules in his apparel, parti- 
cularly by a vest girt on his hip, and by a coarse mantle over all his dress. 
Flatterers endeavoured to trace the Flavian family by direct descent from 
Hercules. Henry IV. of France used for his device a figure of Hercules 
subduing a monster, with a motto, " Invia virtuti nulla est via." No way 
but is a way to valour. 

Probably none of the heathen gods have so many monuments of anti- 
quity relating to them as Hercules. He was regarded by the ancients as 
the pattern of human virtue. The Choke of Hercules is one of the most 
edifying lessons of ancient morality. There is some obscurity about his 
memorable labours. Spence distinguishes his adventures previous to the 
labours imposed by Eurystheus, his twelve labours, and his voluntary ex- 
ploits. Martial, in another epigram, in which, as in the text, he makes 
Domitian out-Hercules Hercules, mentions seven of the ordinary twelve 
labours of Hercules, and two of the extraordinary or voluntary labours ; 
Ovid relates ten of the ordinary and four of the extraordinary labours ; 
Virgil, two ordinary and six extraordinary. The twelve ordinary labours 
of Hercules were inscribed on an ancient altar that used to stand at the 
gate of Albano, at Ptome, and which was afterwards removed to the 
Capitoline Gallery. 

All the adventures of Hercules have been represented by poets and 
artists with many fanciful varieties. Sometimes the infant Hercules is 
represented as kilhng both the serpents at the same time, with so much 
ease and indifference, that he scarcely deigns to look upon them. He 
is otherwise represented with a smile on his face, as if pleased with the 
colours and motions of the serpents. Sometimes he is made to look con- 
cerned that he has killed them, and so put an end to the diversion they 
afforded him. Occasionally the effect is sought to be heightened by 
introducing a nurse holding his twin brother in her arms, and a contrast 
is represented between her alarm and the playful intrepidity of the 
infant demi-god. One of Zeuxis's most admired paintings was extolled 
for its dramatic effect in representing the terror of Alcmena and Eurys- 
theus, whilst witnessing the struggle between the child and the serpents. 
With respect to the Stymphahdes, in some gems they are omitted on 
account of their height, but Hercules is seen shooting with his bow, and 
one or more of these birds are dropt at his feet. In other gems the birds 
are represented flying, but Hercules is kneeling, to allow of a greater 
intervening distance. 

There is a discussion in Aulus Gelhus on the size of Hercules's foot, 
with reference to the Roman saying, Ex pede Herculem. It appears that 
the Olympic stadium was six hundred of his steps ; and from the calcula- 
tions of different authors, the notion of Hercules's height appears to have 
been that he was six feet seven inches high. Martial was prudent in 
representing the true Hercules as in all respects minor to the Emperor. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 289 

He probably recollected what Suetonius relates of the Emperor Caligula, 
that, " as he stood by the statue of Jupiter, he asked one Apelles, a trage- 
dian, which of the two he thought the bigger? Upon his demurring about 
it, the Emperor ordered him to be lashed severely, now and then com- 
mending his voice, whilst he begged pardon, as very sweet in the midst of 
groans.*' 



XXXI. 

^GIS OF DOMITIAN. 



Accipe belligerse crudum thoraca Minervse, 

Ipsa Medusese quo tumet ira Dese. 
Dum vacat haec, Csesar, poterit lorica vocari : 

Pectore cum sacro sederit, Mgis erit. 

Gird on the breast-plate of belligerent Minerva, in 
which the head of Medusa swells with terrific anger : a 
breast-plate, indeed, it might be called, when you have not 
occasion to use it ; but on thy sacred breast it is an ^gis. 

This epigram is an example of the flattery of the Romans in transfer- 
ring the principal attributes of their deities to their Emperors. There is 
in the Gallery at Florence an antique bust of Domitian, which has an a3gis 
on the breastplate, corresponding to the poetical description, and pro- 
bably the occasion of it. Spence, in his Polymetis, observes, that there is 
scarcely a Roman Emperor from Augustus to Gallienus, from the per- 
fecting to the fall of the arts at Rome, but has the emblem of the segis on 
his breastplate, in statues, busts, gems, or medals. There was a statue of 
Minerva in the Capitol without her segis ; it was suggested by the glozing 
poet, that the goddess had lent it to Domitian. The head of Medusa on 
the segis is sometimes represented as a very beautiful, and, at others, a 
most shocking object. In some figures of it, the face is represented as 
dead, but with the most perfect features that can be imagined ; in others, 
the face is full of passion, and the eyes convulsed. In a third species, the 
predominating expression is that of horror. Various attempts have been 
made to explain the myth of Medusa and the Gorgons, by authors, to 
whom reference is made in Smith's Dictionary. 

The beauties and horrors of Medusa's head are both mentioned by the 
Roman poets ; they speak frequently also of her serpents ; and particu- 
larly of two, as having their tails twined together under her chin, and 
their heads reared over her forehead. The segis is described by Virgil 

19 



290 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

and by Ovid : it may be seen in the plates to Spence's Polymetis. The 
following is from a poem of Shelley upon the picture of Medusa's head by 
Leonardo Da Vinci : 

It lieth, gazing on the midnight sky, 

Upon the cloudy mountain-peak supine ; 
Below, far lands are seen tremblingly ; 

Its horror and its beauty are divine. 
Upon its lips and eyelids seem to lie 

Loveliness like a shadow, from which shrine. 
Fiery and lurid, struggling underneath, 
The agonies of anguish and of death. 

Yet it is less the horror than the grace 
Which turns the gazer's spirit into stone ; 

Whereon the lineaments of that dead face 
Are graven, till the characters be grown 

Into itself, and thought no more can trace ; 
'Tis the melodious hue of beauty thrown 

Athwart the darkness and the glare of pain, 

Which humanize and harmonize the strain. 

And from its head as from one body grow. 

As [ ] grass out of a watery rock. 

Hairs which are vipers, and they curl and flow. 

And their long tangles in each other lock. 
And with unending involutions show 

Their mailed radiance, as it were to mock 
The torture and the death within, and saw 
The solid air with many a ragged jaw. 

And from a stone beside, a poisonous eft 

Peeps idly into these Gorgon ian eyes ; 
Whilst in the air a ghastly bat, bereft 

Of sense, has flitted with a mad surprise 
Out of the cave this hideous light had cleft, 

And he comes hastening like a moth that hies 
After a taper; and the midnight sky 
Flares, a light more dread than obscurity. 

'Tis the tempestuous loveliness of terror ; 

For from the serpents gleams a brazen glare 
Kindled by that inextricable error, 

Which makes a thrilling vapour of the air 
Become a [ ] and ever-shifting mirror 

Of all the beauty and the terror there — 
A woman's countenance, with serpent locks. 
Gazing in death on heaven from those wet rocks. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 291 

XXXII. 

STATUE OF ERASMUS. 

Kotterodamus ego non inficiabor Erasmus, 

Ne videar cives deseruisse meos. 
Ipsorum instinctu, Princeps clarissime, salvum 

Ingressu precor ad limina nostra tuum, 
Atque hunc, quo possum studio, commendo popellum 

Maxime prsesidiis Caesare nate tuis. 
Te Dominum agnoscunt omnes, te Principe, gaudent. 

Nee quicquam toto charius orbe tenent. 

I, Erasmus, will not disown that I was born at Eotter- 
dam, lest I should be charged with deserting my fellow- 
citizens. By their instigation, I wish you a prosperous 
entry into the house of my birth. And, with all my zeal, 
I recommend the inhabitants of Kotterdam to your espe- 
cial protection and favour. So may they all acknowledge 
you for their sovereign, and regard you as the dearest 
object they have in the world. 



This statue of Erasmus was placed before the house in which he was 
bom. In his right hand was a pen ; in the left was a scroll containing 
the verses in the text. Erasmus was represented as presenting the scroll 
to Philip II., on the occasion of that prince visiting his birth-place. The 
statue was of bronze, and as the common people used to kneel to it, even 
after the Reformation was established at Rotterdam, it narrowly escaped, 
if it did escape, being melted as a Lutheran auto-da-fe. The verses on 
the scroll make it apparent that the inhabitants of Rotterdam had an eye 
to their own interests as well as to the fame of Erasmus. 



19—2 



292 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 



XXXIII. 

A STATUE OF VICTORY, AT ROME, OF WHICH THE WINGS 
WERE DESTROYED BY LIGHTNING. 

Cum fugere haud possit, fractis Victoria pennis, 
Te manet imperii, Eoma, perenne decus. 

Queen of the world, how should thy glory die, 
While Victory stays, and has no wings to fly. 



XXXIV. 

THE FLORENTINE BRUTUS. 

Efiigiem Bruti sculptor de m armor e ducit, 
At scelus in mentem venit, et abstinuit. 

Whilst the sculptor was forming the marble likeness of 
Brutus, he suddenly thought of his crime, and left the 
Statue unfinished. 



This epigram has reference to an unfinished statue by Michael Angelo 
at Florence. It seems to be the better opinion, that Michael Angelo did 
not display any sudden antipathy to the regicide, Marcus Brutus : but that 
having commenced the statue of one of the Medici who assassinated his 
uncle, and was called the Florentine Brutus, but who afterwards proved 
the oppressor instead of the Liberator of his country, Michael Angelo laid 
aside the unfinished statue in disgust. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 293 



XXXV. 

STATUE OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON IN FRONT OF 
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. 

Conservata tuis Asia atque Europa triumphis, 

Invictum bello te coluere ducem. 
Nunc umbrata geris civili tempora quercu, 

Ut desit famae gloria nulla tuse. 

Europe and Asia, saved by thee, proclaim 
Invincible in war thy deathless name ; 
Now round thy brows the civic wreath we twine, 
That every earthly glory may be thine. 

The Latin and English are both by the Mai-quis of Wellesley. 



XXXVI. 

THE BUST OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON DEPOSITED 
IN THE LIBRARY OF ETON COLLEGE. 

Affulsit mihi supremo meta ultima famae ; 

Jam mihi cum lauro juncta cupressus erit : 
Mater amata, meam quae fovit Etona juventam, 

Ipsa recedentem signat honore senem. 

The last goal of my life is now before my eyes ; and 
very soon the cypress will be united to my laurels. Eton, 
my loved Alma Mater, who fostered my early youth, be- 
stows this mark of honor upon an old man withdrawing 
from the world's stage. 

The Latin is by the Marquis of Wellesley. 



294 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXXVII. 

MADAME LANGHEN'S MONUMENT. 
Viduus loquitur. 
Nulla mei ostentat lapis hie insignia luctus 

Impositus cineri, cara Marie, tuo : 
Nee tibi eondeeorant solito de more sepulcra 

SoUieitent fletus qualiaeunque novos. 
Heu ! nimis iste dolor, nimis ista reeursat imago ! 

Et quianam haec animo sint referenda meo ? 
Has prope relliquias, quoties aut debita sacris 

Officia, aut fidus me revocarit amor, 
Has prope relliquias, segrae solatia menti 

Sunt aliqua, et lacrymis invenienda quies. 
Hie tua me reficit, tua me rediviva tuentem 

EflSgies sevi spe melioris alit. 
Hie mihi semper ades, non qualis vix nova mater 

Amplexu hserebas jam moribunda meo ; 
Sed qualis surges, ubi nos de sede profunda 

Suscitet 8etheris9 vox animosa tubas, 
Somnum exuta gravem, et ccelestis conscia vitae, 

Jamque adventantis numine Iseta Dei. 

As often as my sacred duties, or my faithful love recall 
me to this spot, I derive a consolation for my lacerated 
heart from the hope of a future and better life, with which 
your image inspires me. Here you are always present to 
me ; not as when scarcely become a mother your dying 
limbs were enfolded in my embrace, but such as you shall 
rise again when the sonorous trumpet of heaven shall 
awaken the dead of every people and of all times ; when 
you shall rouse yourself from the sleep of the grave ; and 
shall again wear a happy smile at the final advent of your 
God. 

This monument, (of which a representation is given in a plate to 
Flaxman's Lectures on Sculpture), is erected in a church near Berne. 
Madame Langhens was the wife of the clergyman of the parish, and died 
in childbed. She is represented as just awakened by the sound of the 
last trumpet, shaking off her sepulchral cerements, and about to ascend 
into the skies. The Latin is by Lord Grenville. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 295 

XXXVIII. 

PRAXITELES TURNED SPORTSMAN. 

Praxiteles, sumta pharetra telisque Dianae, 

Venatorque novus per nemus arma movet : 
Aeris at ilia aeies ubi primum intenderat areum, 

En ! trajecit aves una sagitta duas ! 
" Parce meis ne sint vacuae," Latonia, " sylvis," 

Increpat, " et propria siste sub arte manum." 
lUe, dese monitu atque animosior arte resumta, 

" Diva," ait, '' haec culpse sit tibi poena mese. 
Ponam inter medios, sacrata umbracula, saltus, 

Signa quibus verae restituentur aves : 
Verge in morte tamen, quales jaeuere sub alta 

nice, jamque anima deficiente pares. 
Aspiee languentes deflexo in marmore pennas ! 

Aspiee ! quae plumis gratia morte manet I 
Has tu, Diva, tuas ne dedignare sub aras 

Aeeipere, haec poenae stent monumenta meae. 
Sic tibi laetifico resonet clamore Cithaeron, 

Taygeta et variis sint tibi plena feris : 
Sic tua delubris auro servetur imago, 

Cui vitam, atque animos, et decus ipse dabo." 

Praxiteles, after equipping himself at the armoury of 
Diana, rushed, an untried sportsman as he was, to wage 
war upon the game. The well-known acuteness of his eye 
did not fail him under these novel circumstances ; for, lo I 
he kills a brace of birds with his first shot ! Diana ex- 
claims, " O spare my preserves, or they will soon be deso- 
late, and restrict your hand to its own peculiar cunning ! " 
He, awe-stricken by the admonition of the Goddess, replies, 
*' I sentence myself to this punishment for the offence I 
have perpetrated: I will deposit in the middle of your 
woods two birds which shall supply the place of those I 
have killed. The resemblance shall be perfect as they lay 
at my feet just after I had shot them. Behold, how the 
imitative marble represents the dying flutter of their wings ! 



296 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Oh. 

what a grace is preserved in the delicate feathers of stone ! 
Disdain not, dread Goddess, to accept these memorials of 
my contrition : and so may Cithseron ever send you joyful 
echoes, and may Taygeta never fail in abundance of ani- 
mals fit for the chase : so may a golden image of yourself 
adorn your temple ; an image to which I will impart life, 
and a spirit, and immortal glory." 

Sir F. Chantrey, being at Holkham, joined in the diversion of shooting, 
and, at the first shot, killed two woodcocks, which he sculptured in marble, 
and presented to the Earl of Leicester. The Latin is by the Marquis of 
Wellesley. 



XXXIX. 

PAGEANT FIGURE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH, AS DEBORAH. 

Quando Dei populum Canaan Rex presset Jaben 

Mittitur a magno Debora magna Deo, 
Quae populum eriperet, sanctum servaret Judan, 

Milete quae patrio frangeret hostis opes. 
Hsec, Domino mandante, Deo lectissima fecit 

Fcemina, et adversos contudit ense viros. 
Haec quater denos populum correxerat annos 

Judicio, bello strenua, pace gravis. 
Sic, O sic populum belloque et pace guberna, 

Debora sis Anglis, Elizabetha, tuis ! 

Jaben of Canaan King had long, by force of arms 
Opprest the Israelites, which for God's people went. 

But God minding at last for to redress their harms, 
The worthy Debora as Judge among them sent. 

In war, she, through God's aid, did put her foes to fright. 
And with the dint of sword the hand of bondage brast. 

In peace, she, through God's aid, did always maintain right. 
And judged Israel till forty years were past. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 297 

A worthy precedent, O worthy Queen, thou hast 
A worthy woman Judge, a woman sent for stale. 

And that the like to us endure always thou mayest, 

Thy loving subjects will with true hearts and tongues pray ! 

" At the Conduit, at Fleet Street, was erected a Seat Royal. Behind, 
overshadowing it, was a palm-tree. On the seat was seated a seemly and 
meet personage richly apparelled in parliament robes, crowned with an 
open crown, and holding a sceptre. Over her head was an inscription : 
*Debora the Judge and Restorer of the House of Israel.' When the 
Queen drew near this pageant, she perceived a child ready to open its 
meaning. Her grace commanded silence, and required her chariot to 
be removed nigher, that she might plainly hear the child speak." 

On another occasion, at Norwich, Queen Ehzabeth was presented with 
a massy piece of plate, on which was embossed the story of Joseph, with 
this Latin and English inscription, which may interest the admirers of 
EUzabethan English poetry: 

Innocuum pietas ad regia sceptra Josephum 
Ex manibus fratrum, carnificisque, rapit. 

Carcere, et insidiis, sic te, Regina, tuormn 
Ereptam duxit culmina ad ista Deus. 

To royal sceptres, Godliness Joseph iimocentf 

Doth take, from brothers' hands and murderers vatent. 

So thee, O Queen, the Lord hath led from prison and deceiV 

Of thine, unto these brightest tops of your princely estate. 



XL. 

A STATUE OF SOMNUS. 

Somne levis, quanquam certissima mortis imago est 
Consortem cupio te tamen esse tori. 

Hue ades, haud abiture cito : nam sic sine vita 
Vivere, quam suave est, sic sine morte mori. 

Come gentle sleep ! attend thy votary's prayer, 
And, though death's image, to my couch repair. 
How sweet, though lifeless, yet with life to lie, 
And without dying, O how sweet to die ! 



298 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Another, 

Soft sleep I of death the image though thou art, 
Yet of my couch, O take a kindly part : 
Nor leave me ; for I still, when thou art nigh, 
Live without life, and, without death, I die. 



XLI. 

MYRON'S COW. 
(A) 



Bucula sum, cailo genitoris facta Myronis 
JErea : nee factam me puto, sed genitam. 

Sic me taurus amat : sic proxima bucula mugit. 
Sic vitulus sitiens ubera nostra petit. 

Miraris quod fallo gregem ? gregis ipse magister 
Inter pascentes me numerare solet. 

I am a brazen heifer, sculptured by maker Myron; 
though, methinks, I am born rather than made. Thus each 
bull is enamoured of me ; thus each passing heifer lows to 
me ; thus each thirsty calf endeavours to suck me. Do you 
marvel at the flock being deluded? The master of the 
flock himself counts me as though I were one of his de- 
pasturing cattle. 

(B) 

Ubera quid pulsas frigentia matris aense, 
O vitule, et succum lactis ab sere petis ? 

Hunc quoque praestarem, si me pro parte parasset 
Exteriore Myron, interiore Deus. 

O calf! why do you rub against the frigid udder of a 
brazen mother, and seek to suck milk out of brass ? This 
also I would supply, if nature had done as much for my 
inward structure as my outward form owes to Myron. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 299 

In a book called Kendall's Flowers of Epigrams, published a.d. 1577, 
and dedicated to the Earl of Leicester, with a device of a swan playing 
upon a fiddle, are the following lines : 

The cow of brass that Myron made 

By art, and cunning skill, 
If entrails she had had, she would 

Have lowed both loud and shrill. 

Myron's two most celebrated performances were his Discobolus and 
his Cow. We are happily able to judge by ocular inspection, of Myron's 
talents as a sculptor, by means of the excellent ancient copies of his 
Discobolus, one of which adorns the British Museum, though there are 
doubts whether the head of the Townley Discobolus belongs to it. The 
Massini Discobolus is reckoned more perfect. On the subject of Myron's 
Cow, there are thirty-six epigrams in the Greek Anthology. And Auso- 
nius has left nine besides those in the text. Pliny speaks of its great 
popularity. The artist flourished about the beginning of the Peloponne- 
sian war. This statue of the Cow was in Delian bronze, as Polycletus's 
works were usually in ^ginetan bronze. The statue represented the Cow 
in the act of lowing ; it was placed on a marble base in the largest square 
at Athens, where it stood in the time of Cicero. It was afterwards re- 
moved to the Temple of Peace, at Rome. 

The Farnese Bull, found in the ruins of the baths of Caracalla, is 
spoken of by Eustace as the finest specimen in existence of a sculp- 
tured quadruped. 



XLII. 

TOREUTIC WORK. 



(A) 
Inserta phialas Mentoris manu ducta 
Lacerta vivit, et timetur argentum. 

The Lizard carved on yon cup by the magic hand of 
Mentor, seems actually alive, and the spectator stands 
alarmed at the silver. 

(B) 
Artis Phidiac88 toreuma clarum 
Pisces adspicis ; adde aquam, natabunt. 



300 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Behold these fishes, a beautiful specimen, in toreutic 
work, of the Phidian art. Give them water, and they will 
swim away. 

(c) 

Quamvis Calliaco rubeam generosa metallo, 
Glorior arte magis : nam Myos iste labor. 

Although I am precious in your sight, from my ma- 
terial being that of ruddy gold ; yet I value myself more 
on my workmanship, for I was chased by Mys. 

The toreutic art, or that of chasing ornamental metals, was an import- 
ant accessary to the art of statuary, especially in works of gold, silver, 
bronze, and ivory. (On the history and progress of this art, see Dr 
Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities^ Articles, Ccelaturaf Statuaria Ars, Sculp- 
tura.) 

Mentor was the most celebrated silver-chaser among the Greeks. 
Pliny says that his choicest works perished in the conflagration of the 
temple of Diana at Ephesus ; the tools with which he had executed them, 
were deposited in the temple, as an offering to the goddess. Lucian calls 
elaborately worked silver cups Mentorian. Mys was a worker in toreutic 
of the age of Phidias : he engraved the battle of the Lapithse and Cen- 
taurs in the shield of Phidias's colossal bronze statue of Minerva in the 
Acropolis. 

The fifth Dialogue in Spence's Polymetis contains an interesting history 
of the introduction, improvement, and fall, of the arts at Rome, com- 
mencing with the period when, according to Livy, Cato the Censor pro- 
phesied that the vengeance of heaven would fall upon the Romans for 
preferring the marble statues of foreign gods to their own rude earthen- 
ware idols, and when, according to Paterculus, the consul Mummius sent 
to Italy from Corinth a large cargo of pictures and statues of the most 
celebrated artists, protesting to those to whose charge he intrusted them, 
that if they were lost or damaged, they should give him new ones {si eas 
perdidissentf novas eos reddituros. Pater. L. i. § 13). 

The Oration of Cicero against Verres, in which he prefers an accusa- 
tion of despoiling the Sicilians of works of Art, is an interesting memo- 
rial of those treasures of statuary and painting which were found in the 
Roman colonies, and were ultimately transferred to Rome. The follow- 
ing extract is from Middleton's Life of Cicero : 

" C. Heius was the principal citizen of Messana, where he lived very 
splendidly in the most magnificent house of the city, and used to receive 
all the Roman magistrates with great hospitality. He had a chapel in his 
house, built by his ancestors, and furnished with certain images of the 



IV.] THE ARTS. 301 

gods, of admirable sculpture, and inestimable value. On one side stood 
a Cupid, of marble, made by Praxiteles : on the other, a Hercules of 
brass, by Myron ; with a little altar before each god, to denote the reli- 
gion and sanctity of the place. There were likewise two other figures, 
of brass, of two young women, called Canephorse, with baskets on their 
heads, canning things proper for sacrifice, after the manner of the Athe- 
nians — the work of Polycletus. These statues were an ornament not 
only to Heius, but to Messana itself, being known to everybody at Rome, 
and constantly visited by all strangers, to whom Heius's house was always ' 
open. The Cupid had been borrowed by C. Claudius, for the decoration 
of the Forum in his sedileship, and was carefully sent back to Messana ; 
but Verres, while he was Heius's guest, would never sufi'er him to rest 
till he had stript his chapel of the gods and the Canephorse ; and, to 
cover the act from an appearance of robbery, forced Heius to enter them 
into his accounts, as if they had been sold to him for fifty pounds; 
whereas, at a public auction in Rome, as Cicero says, they had known one 
single statue of brass, of a moderate size, sold, a little before, for a thou- 
sand. Verres had seen likewise, at Heius's house, a suit of curious tapestry, 
reckoned the best in Sicily, being of the kind which was called attalic, 
richly interwoven with gold : this he resolved also to extort from Heius, 
but not till he had secured the statues. As soon, therefore, as he left 
Messana, he began to urge Heius by letters to send him the tapestry to 
Agrigentum, for some particular service which he pretended ; but, when 
he had once got it into his hands, he never restored it. Now Messana, 
as it is said above, was the only city of Sicily that persevered to the last 
in the interest of Verres ; and at the time of the trial sent a public testi- 
monial in his praise, by a deputation of its eminent citizens, of which this 
very Heius was the chief. Yet, when he came to be interrogated and 
cross-examined by Cicero, he frankly declared, that though he was obliged 
to perform what the authority of his city had imposed upon him, yet that 
he had been plundered by Verres of his gods, which were left to him by 
his ancestors, and which he never would have parted with on any condi- 
tions whatsoever, if it had been in his power to keep them. 

" Verres had in his family two brothers, of Cilicia, the one a painter, 
the other a sculptor, on whose judgment he chiefly relied in his choice of 
pictures and statues, and all other pieces of art. They had been forced 
to fly from their country for robbing a temple of Apollo, and were now 
employed to hunt out everything that was curious and valuable in Sicily, 
whether of public or private property. These brothers having given Verres 
notice of a large silver ewer, belonging toPamphilus, of Lilybeum, of most 
elegant work, made by Boethus, Verres immediately sent for it, and seized 
it to his own use : and, while Pamphilus was sitting pensive at home 
lamenting the loss of his rich vessel, the chief ornament of his sideboard, 
and the pride of his feasts, another messenger came running to him with 
orders to bring two silver cups also, which he was known to have, adorned 
with figures in relief, to be shewn to the prsetor. Pamphilus, for fear 



802 



GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. 



[Ch. 



of greater mischief, took up his cups and carried them away himself: 
when he came to the palace Verres happened to be asleep, but the 
brothers were walking in the hall and waiting to receive him ; who, as 
soon as they saw him, asked for the cups, which he accordingly produced. 
They commended the work ; whilst he, with a sorrowful face, began to 
complain that if they took his cups from him he should have nothing of 
any value left in his house. The brothers, seeing his concern, asked how 
much he would give to preserve them; in a word they demanded forty 
crowns ; he offered twenty : but while they were debating, Verres awaked 
and called for the cups ; which being presently shewn to him, the brothers 
took occasion to observe that they did not answer to the account that 
had been given of them, and were but of paltry work, not fit to be seen 
among his plate: to whose authority Verres readily submitted, and so 
Pamphilus saved his cups. 

" In the city of Tindaris there was a celebrated image of Mercury, 
which had been restored to them from Carthage by Scipio, and was wor- 
shipped by the people with singular devotion, and an annual festival. 
This statue Verres resolved to have, and commanded the chief magistrate 
Sopater to see it taken down and conveyed to Messana. But the peo- 
ple were so inflamed and mutinous upon it, that Verres did not persist 
in his demand at that time ; but, when he was leaving the place, re- 
newed his orders to Sopater with severe threats to see his command 
executed. Sopater proposed the matter to the senate, who universally 
protested against it : in short, Verres returned to the town, and enquired 
for the statue ; but was told by Sopater that the senate would not suffer 
it to be taken down, and had made it capital for any one to meddle with 
it without their orders. ' Do not tell me,' says Verres, * of your senate 
and your orders ; if you do not presently deliver the statue, you shall be 
scourged to death with rods.* Sopater, with tears, moved the affair again 
to the senate, and related the praetor's threats, but in vain ; they broke 
up in disorder, without giving any answer. This was reported by Sopater 
to Verres, who was sitting in his tribunal : it was the midst of winter, 
the weather extremely cold, and it rained very heavily, when Verres 
ordered Sopater to be stripped and carried into the market-place, and 
there to be tied upon an equestrian statue of C. Marcellus, and exposed, 
naked as he was, to the rain and the cold, and stretched, in a kind of tor- 
ture, upon the brazen horse ; where he must necessarily have perished if 
the people of the town, out of compassion to him, had not forced their 
senate to grant the Mercury to Verres. 

" Young Antiochus, king of Syria, having been at Rome to claim the 
kingdom of Egypt in right of his mother, passed through Sicily, at this 
time, on his return home, and came to Syracuse ; where Verres, who knew 
that he had a great treasure with him, received him with a particular 
civility; made him large presents of wine and all refreshments for his 
table, and entertained him most magnificently at supper. The king, 
pleased with this compliment, invited Verres in his turn to sup with him, 



IV.] THE ARTS. 303 

when his sideboard was dressed out in a royal manner with his richest 
plate, and many vessels of solid gold, set with precious stones, among 
which there was a large jug of wine, made out of an entire gem, with a 
handle of gold to it. Verres greedily surveyed and admired every piece, 
and the king rejoiced to see the Roman prsetor so well satisfied with his 
entertainment. The next morning Yerres sent to the king to borrow some 
of his choicest vessels, and particularly the jug, for the sake of shewing 
them, as he pretended, to his own workmen ; all which the king, having 
no suspicion of him, readily sent. But besides these vessels of domestic 
use, the king had brought with him a large candlestick or branch for 
several hghts, of inestimable value, all made of precious stones, and 
adorned with the richest jewels, which he had designed for an offering to 
Jupiter Capitolinus ; but, finding the repairs of the capitol not finished, 
and no place yet ready for the reception of his off'ering, he resolved to 
carry it back without shewing it to anybody, that the beauty of it might 
be new and the more surprising when it came to be first seen in that 
temple. Verres, having got intelligence of this candlestick, sent again to 
the king to beg by all means that he would favour him with a sight of it, 
promising that he would not suffer any one else to see it. The king sent it 
presently by his servants, who, after they had uncovered and shewn it to 
Verres, expected to carry it back with them to the king; but Verres 
declared that he could not sufi&ciently admire the beauty of the work, 
and must have more time to contemplate it ; and obliged them, therefore, 
to go away and leave it with him. Several days passed, and the king 
heard nothing from Verres ; so that he thought proper to remind him, by 
a civil message, of sending back the vessels : but Verres ordered the ser- 
vants to call again some other time. In short, after a second message, 
with no better success, the king was forced to speak to Verres himself : 
upon which Verres earnestly entreated him to make him a present of the 
candlestick. The king afl&rmed it to be impossible, on the account of his 
vow to Jupiter, to which many nations were witnesses. Verres then 
began to drop some threats ; but finding them of no more effect than his 
entreaties, he commanded the king to depart instantly out of his pro- 
vince, declaring that he had received intelligence of certain pirates who 
were coming from his kingdom to invade Sicily. The poor king, finding 
himself thus abused and robbed of his treasure, went into the great 
square of the city, and in a public assembly of the people, calling upon 
the gods and men to bear testimony to the injury, made a solemn dedica- 
tion to Jupiter of the candlestick, which he had vowed and designed for 
the capitol, and which Verres had forcibly taken from him.'' 

The following letter of Pliny may shew the intense pleasure which 
Romans of intelligence took in works of art : 

" I have lately purchased with a legacy that was left me a statue of 
Corinthian brass. It is small indeed, but well executed, at least if I have 
any judgment ; which most certainly in matters of this sort, as perhaps in 



.304 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

all others, is extremely defective. However, I think I have a taste to 
discover the beauties of this figure : as it is naked, the faults, if there be 
any, as well as the perfections, are more observable. It represents an old 
man in a standing posture. The bones, the muscles, the veins, and 
wrinkles, are so strongly expressed, that you would imagine the figure to 
be animated. The character is well preserved throughout every part of 
the body : the hair is thin, the forehead broad, the face shrivelled, the 
throat lank, the arms languid, the breast fallen, and the belly sunk ; as the 
whole turn and air of the figure behind is expressive of old age. It 
appears to be antique from the colour of the brass. In short, it is a per- 
formance so highly finished as to merit the attention of the most curious, 
and to afford at the same time pleasure to the most common observer : 
and this induced me, who am a mere novice in this art, to buy it. But 
I did so, not with any intent of placing it in my own house (for I have 
nothing of that kind there), but with a design of fixing it in some conspi- 
cuous place in my native province, perhaps in the temple of Jupiter : for 
it is a present well worthy of a temple and a god. I desire, therefore, 
you would, with that care which you always execute my requests, give 
immediate orders for a pedestal to be made for it. I leave the choice 
of the marble to you, but let my name be engraven upon it, and, if you 
think proper, my titles. I will send the statue by the first opportu- 
nity ; or possibly (which I am sure you will like better) I may bring it 
myself: for I intend, if I can find leisure, to make an excursion to you. 
This is a piece of news which I know you will rejoice to hear ; but you 
will soon change your countenance when I tell you my visit will be only 
for a few days : for the same business that now detains me here, will pre- 
vent my making a longer stay. Farewell." 

The celebrated epistle of Catullus to Csesar concerning Mamurra, 
referred to in a former chapter, has especial reference to Mamurra who 
attended Csesar in his campaigns, glutting himself with the plunder of the 
provinces, and then lavishing his hoards for the most profligate purposes. 
Juvenal has declaimed on this subject of province-plunder with his accus- 
tomed energy: 

Non idem gemitus olim, neque vulnus erat par 
Damnorum, sociis florentibus, et mode victis. 
Plena domus tunc omnis, et ingens stabat acervus 
Nummorum, Spartana chlamys, conchylia Coa; 
Et cum Parrhasii tabulis, signisque Myronis, 
Phydiacum vivebat ebur, nee non Polycleti 
Multus ubique labor: rarae, sine Mentore mensoe 
Inde Dolabella est, atque hinc Antonius, inde 
Sacrilegus Verres. Referebant navibus altis 
Occulta spolia, et plures de pace triumphos. 
Nunc sociis juga pauca boum, grex parvus equarum 
Et pater armenti capto eripiatur agello; 



IV.] THE ARTS. 305 

Ipsi deinde Lares, si quod spectabile signum, 
Si quis in sedicula Deus unicus. 

When Rome at first our rich allies subdu'd, 
From gentle taxes noble spoils accru'd ; 
Each wealthy province, but in part opprest, 
Thought the loss trivial, and enjoy'd the rest. 
All treasuries did then with heaps abound ; 
In every wardrobe costly silks were found ; 
The least apartment of the meanest house 
Could all the wealthy pride of art produce ; 
Pictures which from Parrhasius did receive 
Motion and warmth ; and statues taught to live ; 
Some Polyclete's, some Myron's work declar'd, 
In others Phidias* masterpiece appear'd; 
And crowding plate did on the cupboard stand, 
Emboss'd by curious Mentor's artful hand. 
• Prizes like these oppressors might invite. 
These Dolabella's rapine did excite. 
These Antony for his own theft thought fit, 
Verres for these did sacrilege commit ; 
And when their reigns were ended, ships full fraught 
The hidden fruits of their exaction brought, 
Which made in peace a treasure i-icher far, 
Than what is plunder'd in the rage of war. 

This was of old ; but our confederates now 
Have nothing left but oxen for the plough, 
Or some few mares reserved alone for breed ; 
Yet lest this provident design succeed. 
They drive the father of the herd away, 
Making both stallion, and his pasture, prey. 
Their rapine is so abject and profane. 
They nor from trifles, nor from gods refrain; 
But the poor Lares from the niches seize, 
If they be little images that please. 
Such are the spoils which now provoke their theft, 
And are the greatest, nay, they *re all that 's left. 

Thus may you Corinth or weak Rhodes oppress, 
Who dare not bravely what they feel redress : 
(For how can fops thy tyranny controul ? 
Smooth limbs are symptoms of a servile soul) 
But trespass not too far on sturdy Spain, 
Sclavonia, France : thy gripes from those restrain, 
Who with their sweat Rome's luxury maintain, 
And send us plenty, while our wanton day 
Is lavish'd at the circus or the play. 

20 



■1 



306 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

For, should you to extortion be inclin'd, 
Your cruel guilt will little booty find, 
Since gleaning Marius has already seiz'd 
All that from sun-burnt Afric can be squeez'd. 

But above all, " Be careful to withhold 
Your talons from the wretched and the bold ; 
Tempt not the brave and needy to despair ; 
For, though your violence should leave 'm bare 
Of gold and silver, swords and darts remain. 
And will revenge the wrongs which they sustain : 
The plunder'd still have arms." 

Think not the precept I have here laid down 
A fond, uncertain notion of my own ; 
No, 'tis a sibyl's leaf what I relate, 
And fix'd and sure as the decrees of fate. 



XLIII. 
ON A TOREUTIC CUP. 

Quis labor in phiala ? docti Myos, anne Myronis ? 

Mentoris base manus est, an, Polyclete, tua ? 
Livescit nulla caligine fusca, nee odit 

Exploratores nubila massa focos. 
Vera minus flavo radiant electra metallo, 

' Et niveum felix pustula vincit ebur. 
Materise non cedit opus : sic alligat orbem, 

Plurima cum tota lampade Luna nitet. 
Stat caper iEolio Thebani vellere Phryxi 

Cultus : ab hoc mallet vecta fuisse soror. 
Hunc nee Cinyphius tonsor violaverit, et tu 

Ipse tua pasci vite, Lysee, velis. 
Terga premit pecoris geminis Amor aureus alls : 

Palladius tenero lotos ab ore sonat. 
Sic Methymn^o gavisus Arione delphin 

Languida non tacitum per freta vexit onus. 
Imbuat egregium digno mihi nectare munus 

Non grege de domini, sed tua, Ceste, manus. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 307 

Ceste, decus mensse, misce Setina : videtur 

Ipse puer nobis, ipse sitire caper. 
Det numerum cyathis instanti litera Rufi : 

Auctor enim tanti muneris ille mihi. 
Si Telethusa venit, promissaque gaudia portat : 

Servabor dominae, Rufe, triente tuo. 
Si dubia est, septunce trahar ; si fallit amantem, 

Ut jugulem euras, nomen utrumque bibam. 

The wond'rous form could Mys', or Myron's art, 
Or, Mentor's, thine, or Polyclete's impart ? 
Thy spotless cloudless mass must all admire : 
That, far from dreading, dares the test of fire. 
Electrum radiates less a golden stream : 
The polisht elephant may rudeness seem. 
The rich materials, bright as lunar beam, 
When, with the work compar'd, appear but mean. 
Forth springs the goat, th' ^olic fleece unshorn, 
On whom poor Helle better had been borne. 
The dire Cinyphian ne'er had shorn his hair ; 
Nor, dear dissolver of each mortal care, 
Hadst thou denied this goat to crop thy vine. 
Or fancied him a foe to thee or thine. 
With winged Love behold the bestial crown'd ; 
Hear from his mouth the lote Palladian sound. 
Such joy Arion to the fish convey'^d, 
When through the stilly main the rider play'd. 
The precious boon with the nectareous dew, 
No vulgar lips, but, Cestus, thine imbue. 
Then with the blended Setian bid it mount : 
The boy and goat thirst for that mantling fount. 
Who should the numeral of that goblet name. 
But he from whom the peerless goblet came ? 

The translation by Elphinstone, a little modified, concludes with a re- 
ference to the drinking customs of the Romans, whereby the poet engages, 
under certain circumstances, to drink the number of cyathuses equivalent 
to the number of letters in the donor's ^roewomen, under others, those of his 
nomen, and under certain untoward events, to console himself by drinking 
both names. In another epigram, Martial complains, that for wanting of 

20—2 



308 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

any lady visiting him whose name he could drink, he was obliged, 
before going to bed, to drink the letters of the name of Somnus. The 
Roman Sextarius was equivalent in liquids to the as in solids, and was 
similarly divided, the cyathus being equivalent to the uncial or ounce. 
So that to drink the two names, Instantius Rufus, would take fifteen 
cyathi, that is to say, a full sextarius, and a quadrans or fourth. This, 
and other drinking customs, as the casting of dice for the rulership of 
the cups, are illustrated in a very agreeable manner in the 10th scene of 
Bekker's Gallus, entitled " The Banquet." Butler, in Hudibras, alludes 
to the practice of drinking names : 

I'll carve your name on barks of trees 

With true-loves-knots, and flourishes ; 

Drink every letter on't in stum. 

And make it brisk champaign become. 

Horace, although, in his Odes, he is full of vivacity when dwelling on 
banqueting laws, in his Epistles he expatiates on the superior enjoyment 
of a table, at which rational conversation is the fashion of the place, and 
whence all insane rules (legibus insanis) of drinking are discarded. 

It appears from this epigram, and from other authorities, that eminent 
statuaries, as Myron, and Polycletus, were also famous for toreutic. The 
electrum spoken of, was a metal consisting of gold, and one-fifth part 
silver : it was supposed to reflect the light of a lamp more brilliantly than 
silver. It had also attributed to it, like the modern glass of Venice, the 
power of detecting poison. 

With regard to the Setine and other Roman wines, and the mixing of 
wines, there is a fund of information in Dr Smith's Dictionary, art. Vinum, 
and in Bekker's Gallus. Before the time of Augustus, the Csecuban was 
the most prized wine. During the reign of Augustus, and afterwards, the 
Setine held the first rank : the second rank was held by the Falernian : 
in the third rank were the Albanian, Massic, Galenic, Formianum, Sur- 
rentinum. 

Juvenal, in his first Satire, alludes to the particular device of a goat 
executed in toreutic on a cup, and standing out from it in bold relief. 
Anacreon sings of many pretty devices on drinking-cups. The following 
classical description of an ancient vase is by Keats : 

Thou still unravish'd bride of Quietness ! 

Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time, 
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express ; 

A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme : 
What, leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape 

Of deities or mortals, or of both. 
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady ? 

What men or gods are these ? What maidens loth ? 
What mad pursuit ? What struggle to escape ? 

What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? 



IV.] THE ARTS. 309 

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard 

Are sweeter ; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on ; 
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd. 

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone : 
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave 

Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare ; 
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss. 
Though winning near the goal — yet, do not grieve ; 

She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bUss, 
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! 

Ah, happy, happy boughs ! that cannot shed 

Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu ; 
And, happy melodist, unwearied, 

For ever piping songs for ever new ; 
More happy love ! more happy, happy love ! 

For ever warm and still to be enjoy*d. 
For ever panting and for ever young ; 
All breathing human passion far above. 

That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd, 
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue. 

Who are these coming to the sacrifice ? 

To what green altar, O mysterious priest, 
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, 

And all her silken flanks with garlands drest ? 
What little town by river or sea-shore. 

Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel. 
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn ? 
And, little town, thy streets for evermore 

Will silent be ; and not a soul to tell 
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. 

O Attic shape ! Fair attitude ! with brede 

Of marble men and maidens overwrought, 
With forest branches and the trodden weed ; 

Thou, silent form ! dost tease us out of thought 
As doth eternity : Cold Pastoral ! 

When old age shall this generation waste. 
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe 
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sa/st, 

" Beauty is truth, truth beauty/' that is all 
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. 



310 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XLIY. 

A ROMAN BAZAAR. 

In septis Mamurra diu multumque vagatus ; 

Hie ubi Roma suas aurea vexat opes, 
Inspexit moUes pueros, oculisque comedit : 

Non hos, quos primae prostituere cass3 ; 
Sed quos arcanas servant tabulata catastae, 

Et quos non populus, nee mea turba videt. 
Inde satur, mensas, et opertos exuit orbes, 

Expositumque alte pingue poposeit ebur : 
Et testudineum mensus quater hexaelinon, 

Ingemuit eitro non satis esse suo. 
Consuluit nares, an olerent sera Corinthon : 

Culpavit statuas et, Polyclete, tuas. 
Et turbata brevi questus erystallina vitro, 

Myrrhina signavit, seposuitque decern. 
Expendit veteres calathos, et si qua fuerunt 

Poeula Mentorea nobilitata manu : 
Et virides pieto gemmas numeravit in auro, 

Quidquid et a nivea grandius aure sonat. 
Sardonychas veros mensa quassivit in omni, 

Et pretium magnis fecit iaspidibus. 
Undecima lassus cum jam discederet hora, 

Asse duos calices emit, et ipse tulit. 

Mamurra, having walked a good deal up and down 
the stalls of the Market, first looks over and feasts his eyes 
on the slaves ; not those exposed in the public stalls such 
as poor Martial and people of his condition can think of 
purchasing, but those kept for rich connoisseurs in private 
apartments above the shops. 

Thence full, he calls for the round tables down, 
And t'have the high-placed ivory open shown. 
And measuring the tortoise beds thrice o'er, 
As too small for his cypress, groaned sore. 
Then smells if purely Corinth the brass scent ? 
And Delian statues give him no content. 



I 



IV.] THE ARTS. 311 

Complains the crystals mixed with coarser glass, 
Marks myrrhine cups, and ten aside doth place. 
Cheapens old baskets, and, if any were 
Wrought cups by noble Mentor's cunning there. 
And numbers the green emeralds laid in gold, 
Or any from the ears that take their hold. 
Then seeks true gems in table boards most nice, 
And if rich precious jaspers, asks the price. 
Tir'd, and departing when the eleventh hour come, 
He bought two farthing cups, and took them home. 

The translation is by Fletcher, a.d. 1656. The first commodity 
which attracts Mamurra's notice are the slaves. The more beautiful and 
expensive were not sold in the market by an auctioneer, but by private 
contract in shops (tahernce), and kept in inner partitions of the shops, 
or in a higher story. They were placed on a wooden scaffold (catasta), 
where they might be seen and handled. We read in the classics of about 
£4. 17s. 6d, ^64, and £800, being given for a single slave ; and of a slave 
being sold to defray the expence of a single dish, which Martial designates 
as cannibalism. 

The tdbleSi which are the next object of Mamurra's attention, were 
among the most expensive articles of Roman furniture. The orhes, or 
round tables, cost immense sums of money. Pliny relates that Cicero 
had paid for one which was extant in his time, 1,000,000 sesterces. The 
most costly specimens were those cut off near the root, not only because 
the tree was broadest there, but on account of the wood being dappled 
and speckled, so as sometimes to resemble parsley-leaves, the skins of 
leopards, or peacocks' tails. These orhes, unlike other tables, were not 
provided with several feet, but rested on an ivory column, sometimes in 
imitation of lions' or tigers' feet. 

The hexadinon was a semicircular sofa adapted to a round table, and 
capable of holding six persons. Mamurra makes an excuse for not pur- 
chasing the hexadinon, after measuring it four times, that it was a little 
too small for his cedar-table at home. 

Corinthian brass, or bronze, held the first place among brasses in the 
estimation of the ancients. Some pretended that it was an alloy made 
accidentally by the melting and running together of various metals at the 
burning of Corinth by Mummius. Pliny the elder particularizes several 
classes of Corinthian brass, one of which was white from the quantity of 
silver, and another yellow, from gold predominating among the ingredi- 
ents : a third kind of note was the liver-coloured brass. There was 
also the bronze of Delos, used by Myron, and that of ^Egina, used by 
Polycletus. No ancient works in brass (or copper and zinc) have yet been 
discovered. Those in bronze are found to be composed for the most part 



312 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

of copper and tin (Smith's Diet. art. jEs). Pliny says that the composi- 
tion of Corinthian brass was a secret lost in his time. 

The myrrhine vases were first introduced into Rome by Pompey the 
Great, who dedicated cups of this manufacture to Jupiter Capitolinus. 
Pliny mentions that 70 talents were given for a myrrhine cup holding 
three sextarii, and he speaks of a myrrhine trulla which cost 300 talents. 
Nero gave this sum for a myrrhine drinking- cup. There has been much 
diflference of opinion concerning the material of which myrrhine vessels 
were composed. Most recent writers incline to think that they were true 
Chinese porcelain. Pliny mentions that they were principally valued on 
account of their variety of colours. Martial writes : 

Nos bibimus vitro, tu myrrha, Pontice. Quaere ? 
Prodat perspicuus ne duo vina, calix. 

" We drink out of glass, our host out of a myrrhine cup. Why ? Be- 
cause he does not wish his cup to betray that he is drinking better wine 
than we are in ours." 

Myrrhine cups were supposed to improve the flavour of Falernian wine. 
Si calidum potas, ardenti myrrha Falerno 
Convenit, et melior fit sapor inde mero. 

Sir W. Gell, in his Pompeiana, states that the porcelain of the East 
was called Mirrah di Smyrna so late as a.d. 1555. 

With regard to the crystal and glass vessels, the Museo Borbonico at 
Naples, which contains the relics of Herculaneum and Pompeii, includes 
2400 specimens of ancient glass, many of which are remarkable for their 
graceful forms and brilliant colours, and are of the most delicate and com- 
plicated workmanship. Dr Smith, in his Dictionary, art, Vitrum, gives a 
picture of an ancient glass-cup. It has an inscription, Bibe, Vivas multos 
annos, " Drink, and may you live many years." The characters of the 
inscription are green, the colour of the cup resembles opal, shades of red, 
white, yellow, and blue, predominating in turn, according to the angle at 
which the light falls upon it. The cup is surrounded with a blue net- 
work in glass, not soldered to it, but the whole cut out of a solid mass, 
after the manner of a Cameo. The Portland Vase, discovered about 
three hundred years ago in a marble coffin, is composed of dark-blue 
glass of a very rich tint, on the surface of which are delineated in relief 
several minute and elaborately-wrought figures of opaque white enamel. 
In the time of Nero, a pair of moderate-sized glass-cups with handles 
sometimes cost d£50. A story is related by Petronius, Dion, and Pliny, 
that a coppersmith had discovered the art of making glass-vessels of such a 
pliant hardness, that they were no more to be broken than gold or silver : 
that, being sent for by Tiberius, he threw one of his glass-vessels on the 
paved floor, whereupon it was not broken, though it bulged a little. He 
took a hammer out of his pocket, and hammered the vessel, as though it 
had been a brass kettle, and so removed all signs of the bruise it had re- 



IV.] THE ARTS. SI 3 

ceived. Tiberius asked him if any one knew how to make malleable 
glass besides himself ; he answered that he had imparted the art to no 
one. On which the emperor immediately ordered his head to be struck 
off : " For," said he, " if this art be once known, gold and silver will be of 
no more esteem than dirt." 

Polycletus's statues, and Mentor's toreutic works, have been mentioned 
in a previous page. In regard to crystal cups, and amber ornaments, 
and the precious stones known to the ancients, and the ingenious modes 
of counterfeiting them, a multitude of particulars will be found in the 
37th book of Pliny's Natural History. He relates many curious anec- 
dotes connected with these rarities. Of this nature are the descrip- 
tion of the jewels displayed at Pompey's third triumph, including the 
image of himself in pearls : Fourscore sesterces given for a calcedony 
cup, notwithstanding a piece of the brim had been bit out in a fit of gal- 
lantry, after a lady had touched it with her lips : A sonnet by Nero, in 
which he compares the hair of Poppsea to amber : The full-length figures 
of a man and woman in amber : A calcedony cup of the value of three 
hundred thousand sesterces destroyed by its owner, when about to be put 
to death, lest the emperor should seize it : Two crystal drinking-cups of 
immense value dashed to pieces by Nero in a fit of imperial rage. 

Mamurra quits the market at the eleventh hour, which, in the summer 
solstice would commence, in modem hours, at 5hrs. 2 m., and, in the winter 
solstice, at 2hrs. 58 m. ; in short, he spent the whole day in choosing and 
cheapening, and concluded with buying two insignificant cups, which, for 
want of a slave, he carried away himself. The bathos with which the 
epigram concludes is a favoui'ite species of wit with modern epigramma- 
tists, of which several pleasing specimens may be seen in Lord Kaimes's 
Elements of Criticism. 



XLV. 

THE GREAT TUN AT HEIDELBURG. 

Nunc, age, fas magni vas instar visere montis 

Divina structum Palladis arte cadum. 
Nobilis author adest, urbs quern Landavia misit, 

Fine potita suo gloria ponit opus. 
Ponit opus, decus acre Ducum, non quale priorum, 

iEtas vel vidit, nulla vel ausa manus. 
Non, mihi si prgestent mirandam Daedalus artem 

Ipse, Syracusius vel faber ille suam : 



314 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Immanem molem satis hanc deseribere possem, 

Ante suo volvam pondus onusque loco. 
Laude opus hoc dignum est : oculos cum caetera pascant, 

Spectaclum ventres hoc satiare potest. 

Now it is lawful to behold this Tun made by the 
divine art of Minerva, after the similitude of a huge moun- 
tain. A native of Landavit erected this noble memorial 
of the magnificence and glory of our royal Dukes, such as 
no former age has seen, no former hand has dared to 
attempt. But had I the mechanical skill of Daedalus, 
or even of the God Vulcan himself, I could give no ade- 
quate description of the wonders of this Tun. It would be 
an undertaking as rash and vain for me, as if I were to en- 
deavour, by my own strength, to move it out of its place. 
A peculiar merit, however, of this surprising Tun I will not 
omit : it is, that whereas other extraordinary spectacles 
entertain only the eyes, this Tun administers also to the 
enjoyments of the inner man. 

The verses on the Tun are more than a hundred in number, but 
contain very little description : there is, however, an exuberance of classi- 
cal illustrations, as, for example, such as are derived from the Trojan Horse, 
and from Diogenes's Tub. The following description of the Great Tun 
by Coryat, in his Crudities, is amusing. Though it was the fashion in the 
time of King James to laugh at this traveller, perhaps no Englishman of 
his time had seen so much as the Leg-stretcher (so he was called) of 
foreign parts, and few could give more graphic descriptions of what they 
saw. His book contains a picture of the Tun, with himself standing upon 
it in the attitude of drinking a glass of Rhenish wine from the contents 
of the Tun : 

" But some of the gentlemen of the prince's family did suflEiciently 
recompence my loss of the sight of these ancient pillars by shewing me a 
certain piece of work that did much more please my eyes than the sight 
of those pillars could have done. For it is the most remarkable and 
famous thing of that kind that I saw in my whole journey, yea, so memo- 
rable a matter, that I think there was never the like fabric (for that which 
they shewed me was nothing else than a strange kind of fabric) in all the 
world, and I doubt whether posterity will ever frame so monstrously 
strange a thing: it was nothing but a vessel full of wine. This the 
gentlemen of the coiu-t shewed me after they had first conveyed me into 
divers wine-cellars, where I saw a wondrous company of extraordinary 



IV.] THE ARTS. 315 

great vessels, the greatest part whereof was replenished with Rhenish 
wine, the total number containing one hundred and thirty particulars. 
But the main vessel above all the rest, that superlative moles unto which 
I now bend my speech, was shewed me last of all standing alone by itself 
in a wonderful vast room. I must needs say I was suddenly strooken with 
no small admiration upon the first sight thereof. For it is such a 
stupendous mass (to give it the same epitheton that I have done before 
to the beauty of St Mark's street in Venice) that I am persuaded it will 
affect the gravest and constantest man in the world with wonder. Had 
this fabric been extant in those ancient times when the Colossus of Rhodes, 
the labyrinths of Egypt and Greta, the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the 
hanging gardens of Semiramis, the tomb of Mausolus, and the rest of 
those decantated miracles did flourish in their principal glory, I think 
Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus would have celebrated this rare work 
with their learned style as well as the rest, and have consecrated the 
memory thereof to immortality, as a very memorable miracle. For, in- 
deed, it is a kind of monstrous miracle, and that of the greatest size for 
a vessel that this age doth yield in any place whatsoever (as I am verily 
persuaded) under the cope of heaven. Pardon me, I pray thee, (gentle 
reader) if I am something tedious in discoursing of this huge vessel. For 
as it was the strangest spectacle that I saw in my travels, so I hope it 
will not be unpleasant unto thee to read a full descripion of all the par- 
ticular circumstances thereof: and for thy better satisfaction I have 
inserted a true figure thereof in this place (though but in a small form) 
according to a certain pattern that I brought with me from the city of 
Francfort, where I saw the first type thereof sold. Also I have added an 
imaginary kind of representation of myself upon the top of the same, in 
that manner as I stood there with a cup of Rhenish wine in my hand. The 
room where it standeth is wonderful vast (as I said before), and capa- 
cious, even almost as big as the fairest hall I have seen in England, and it 
containeth no other thing but the same vessel. It was begun in the year 
1589, and ended 1591, one Michael Warner, of the city of Landavia, being 
the principal maker of the work. It containeth a hundred and two and 
thirty fuders, three omes, and as msmj Jlrtles. These are peculiar names for 
certain German measures. Which I will reduce to our English computa- 
tion. Every /uder countervaileth our tun, that is, four hogsheads, and is 
worth in Heidelberg fifteen pound sterling. So then those hundred two 
and thirty fuders are worth nineteen hundred and fourscore pounds of our 
English money. The ome is a measure whereof six do make a fuder, 
the three being worth seven pounds ten shillings. The Jlrtle is a measure 
that countervaileth six of our pottles : every pottle in Heidelberg is worth 
twelve pence sterling. So the three Jlrtles containing eighteen pottles, 
are worth eighteen shillings. The total sum that the wine is worth 
which this vessel containeth, doth amount to nineteen hundred fourscore 
and eight pounds, and eight odd shillings. This strange news perhaps 
will seem utterly incredible to thee at the first : but I would have thee 



316 



GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. 



[Ch. 



believe it. For nothing is more true. Moreover, thou must consider that 
this vessel is not compacted of boards as other barrels are, but of solid 
great beams, in number a hundred and twelve, whereof every one is seven 
and twenty foot long. Also each end is sixteen foot high, and the belly 
eighteen. It is hooped with wondrous huge hoops of iron (the number 
whereof is six and twenty), which do contain eleven thousand pound 
weight. It is supported on each side with ten marvellous great pillars 
made of timber, and beautified at both the ends and the top with the images 
of lions, which are the prince's arms, two lions at each end, a fair 
scutcheon being affixed to every image. The wages that was paid to the 
workman for his labour (the prince finding all necessary matter for his 
work, and allowing him his diet), came to two thousand three hundred 
and fourscore florins of Brabant, each florin being two shillings of our 
money, which sum amounteth to eleven score and eighteen pounds ster- 
ling. When the cellarer draweth wine out of the vessel, he ascendeth two 
several degrees of wooden stairs made in the form of a ladder, which con- 
tain seven and twenty steps, or rungs, as we call them in Somersetshire, 
and so goeth up to the top. About the middle whereof there is a bung- 
hole or a venting orifice, into the which he conveyeth a pretty instrument 
of some foot and half long, made in the form of a spout, wherewith he 
draweth up the wine, and so poureth it after a pretty manner into the 
glass or &c. out of the same instrument. I myself had experience of this 
matter. For a gentleman of the court accompanied me to the top, toge- 
ther with one of the cellarers, and exhilarated me with two sound draughts 
of Rhenish wine : for that is the wine that it containeth. But I advise 
thee, gentle reader, whatsoever thou art that intendest to travel into 
Germany, and perhaps to see Heidelberg, and also this vessel before thou 
comest out of the city; I advise thee (I say) if thou dost happen to 
ascend to the top thereof to the end to taste of the wine, that in any case 
thou dost drink moderately, and not so much as the sociable Germans will 
persuade thee unto. For if thou shouldest chance to over-swill thyself 
with wine, peradventure such a giddiness will benumb thy brain, that 
thou wilt scarce find the direct way down from the steep ladder without 
a very dangerous precipitation. Having now so copiously described unto 
thee the vessel, I have thought good to add unto this my poor description, 
certain Latin verses made by a learned German in praise of the vessel, 
which I have selected out of the copy that I bought at Frankfort, being 
printed at the University of Leyden in Holland, by one Henry Hsestenius, 
Anno 1608, and dedicated to a certain nobleman called Hippolytus, lord 
president of the prince's chancery court. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 317 

XLVI. 

A TREE CUT INTO THE SHAPE OF A BEAR. 

Proxima centenis ostenditur ursa columnis, 

Exornant fictse qua Platanona ferae. 
Hujus dum patulos alludens tentat hiatus 

Pulcher Hylas ; teneram mersit in ora manum. 
Vipera sed cseco scelerata latebat in ore, 

Vivebatque anima deteriore fera. 
Non sensit puer esse dolos, nisi dente recepto, 

Dum perit. o facinus, falsa quod ursa fuit ! 

Near the hundred columns, where is a garden orna- 
mented with counterfeit wild beasts cut in box and cypress, 
a hear is very conspicuous. Young Hylas, in sport, put his 
hand into the gaping mouth of this leafy monster. Now a 
viper was lurking in this hole, which, upon being disturbed, 
stung the youth. What a pity it was that this bear was 
not a real one ! 

The epigram illustrates a letter of Pliny, cited in the last chapter, and 
several notices in the works of the elder Pliny, concerning ornamental 
gardening among the Romans. On this subject there is a lively disqui- 
sition in Bekker's Gallus, in Scene V, entitled " The Villa," and Excursus 
II. to Scene V, entitled " The Gardens," including an account of the forcing 
of roses in greenhouses, and of flower-pots in windows, both alluded to by 
Martial. 



XLVII. 

GROWTH OF A MAN OF WAR FROM AN ACORN. 

Exigua crescit de glande altissima quercus, 
Et tandem patulis surgit in astra comis ; 

Dumque anni pergunt, crescit latissima moles ; 
Mox secat sequoreas bellica navis aquas : 

Angliacis hinc fama, salus hinc nascitur oris, 
Et glans est nostri prsesidium imperii. 



S18 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ck. 

From a small acorn, see ! the oak arise, 
Supremely tall, and towering in the skies ! 
Queen of the groves ! her stately head she rears, 
Her bulk increasing with increasing years : 
Now moves in pomp, majestic, o'er the deep. 
While in her womb ten thousand thunders sleep. 

The reader may think that the point with which the original concludes, 
that the " Palladium of our Empire is an acorn," is better aimed than 
the "ten thousand thunders" of Pitt. 



XLVIII. 

ON A SHEPHERD'S FIRST SIGHT OF A SHIP. 

Tanta moles labitur 
Fremebunda ex alto, ingenti sonitu et spiritu 
Prse se undas volvit, vortices vi suscitat, 
Ruit prolapsa, pelagus respergit, reflat : 
Ita nunc interruptum credas nimbum volvier, 
Num quod sublime ventis expulsum rapi 
Saxum, aut procellis, vel globosos turbines 
Exsistere ictos, undis concursantibus ? 
Num quas terrestres pontus strages conciet ; 
Aut forte Triton fuscina evertens specus 
Subter radices penitus undanti in freto 
Molem ex profundo saxeam ad coelum vomit. 

For, as we stood there waiting on the strond, 
Behold, an huge great vessell to us came, 
Dauncing upon the waters back to lond, 
As if it scornd the daunger of the same ; 
Yet was it but a wooden frame and fraile, 
Glewed togither with some subtile matter. 
Yet had it armes and wings, and head and taile, 
And life to move it selfe upon the water. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 319 

Strange thing ! how bold and swift the monster was, 
That neither ear'd for wynd, nor haile, nor raine, 
Nor swelling waves, but thorough them did passe 
So proudly, that she made them roare again. 

The Latin is from a fragment of Attius preserved by Cicero : the 
English is from Spenser's Colin Clout 's come home again. 



xLix. ; 

FRAGMENT OF THE SHIP ARGO. ; 

Fragmentum, quod vile putas et inutile lignum, 

Hsec fuit ignoti prima carina maris. \ 

Quam nee Cyanese quondam potuere ruinse j 

Frangere, nee Scythici tristior ira freti. ^ 

Secula vicerunt : sed quamvis cesserit annis, i 

Sanctior est salva parva tabella rate. t, 



The bit of wood, you so disdain, 
Was the first keel that plough'd the main. 
Her not conflicting rocks could crash : 
She mock'd the hyperborean lash. 
Regardless thus of every rage. 
She yielded to all-conquering age, 
And the small remnant of a slip. 
Became more sacred than a ship. 

The ancient Romans afforded several examples for the religious relics 
of the modern Romish Church: for, besides that in the text, was the 
Rumenal tree, mentioned by Tacitus, which was supposed to have sheltered 
Romulus and Remus, and the straw-roofed cottage on the Capitoline Hill, 
mentioned by Vitruvius, in which Romulus and Remus were supposed to 
have been brought up. 

Tacitus writes : " This year the tree, called Rumenalis, (Rumen was an 
old word for dug of the she- wolf, JEneid, Lib. viii.) which stood in the 
place assigned for public elections, and eight hundred and forty years 
before had given shelter to the infancy of Romulus and Remus, began to 
wither in all its branches : the sapless trunk seemed to threaten a total 



820 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

decay. This was considered as a dreadful prognostic, till the new buds 
expanding into leaf, the tree recovered its former verdure." The two 
sacred Triremes of Athens, and the Bucentaur, belonging to the Doge of 
Venice, have enjoyed great traditional celebrity, raising a subtle point 
whether a ship's identity was preserved or lost after an indefinite number 
of repairs. Howell, in his Letters^ written in the reign of James I., gives 
an account of the Bucentaur, which he says was then three hundred 
years old. Coryat's description, in his Crudities, of the Bucentaur, is not 
very commonly read : 

" The fairest galley of all is the Bucentoro, the upper parts whereof 
in the outside are richly gilt. It is a thing of marvellous worth, the 
richest galley of all the world ; for it cost one hundred thousand crowns, 
which is thirty thousand pound sterling. A work so exceeding glorious, 
that I never heard or read of the like in any place of the world, these only 
excepted, viz. that of Cleopatra, which she so exceeding sumptuously 
adorned with cables of silk and other passing beautiful ornaments ; and 
those that the Emperor Caligula built with timber of cedar, and poops 
and sterns of ivory. And lastly, that most incomparable and peerles ship 
of our gracious prince, called the Prince Royal, which was launched at 
Woolwich about Michaelmas last, which indeed doth, by many degrees, 
surpass this Bucentoro of Venice, and any ship else (I believe) in Christ- 
endom. In this galley the Duke launcheth into the sea some few miles 
off, upon the Ascension Day, being accompanied with the principal sena- 
tors and patricians of the city, together with all the ambassadors and per- 
sonages of greatest mark that happen to be in the city at that time. At 
the higher end there is a most sumptuous gilt chair for the Duke to sit in, 
at the back whereof there is a loose board to be lifted up, to the end 
he may look into the sea through that open space, and throw a golden 
ring into it, in token that he doth, as it were, betroth himself unto the sea, 
as the principal lord and commander thereof. A ceremony that was first 
instituted in Venice by Alexander, the third pope of that name, when 
Sebastianus Zanus was Duke, 1174, unto whom he delivered a golden ring 
from his own finger, in token that the Venetians having made war upon 
the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, in defence of his quarrel, discomfited his 
fleet at Istria, and he commanded him for his sake to throw the like golden 
ring into the sea every year, upon Ascension Day, during his life, establish- 
ing this withal, that all his successors should do the like; which custom 
hath been ever since observed to this day. The rowers of the galley sit in 
a lower part thereof, which are in number forty-two ; the images of five 
slaves are most curiously made in the upper part of the galley, and richly 
gilt, standing near to the Duke's seat on both sides. A little from them 
are made twenty gilt statues more in the same row where the other five 
stand, which is done at both sides of the galley. And whereas there are 
two long benches made in the middle for great personages to sit on, over 
each of these benches are erected ten more gilt images, which do yield a 
wondrous ornament to the galley. At the end of one of these middle 



IV.] THE ARTS. 32J 

benches is erected the statue of George Castriot, alias Scanderbeg, Despot 
of Servia, and King of Epirus, who fought many battles for the faith of 
Christ and the Christian religion, against the Turks, of whom he got many 
glorious victories. His statue is made all at length, according to the full 
proportion of a man's body, and sumptuously gilt. Right opposite unto 
which there standeth the image of Justice, which is likewise gilt, at the 
very end of the galley, holding a sword in her hand. This galley will 
contain twelve hundred and twenty persons. At each end without are 
made two exceeding great winged lions as beautifully gilt as the rest." 

But no nautical relic has, perhaps, been more zealously celebrated 
than the ship in which Drake sailed round the world ; part of which was 
converted into an arm-chair, and so preserved among the antiquities be- 
longing to the University of Oxford. Cowley wrote two poems on the 
subject ; in the following, the poet supposes himself sitting and drinking 
in the chair : 

Cheer up, my mates ! the wind does fairly blow ; 

Clap on more sail, and never spare ; 

Farewell all lands, for now we are 

In the wide sea of drink, and merrily we go. 

Bless me ! 't is hot : another bowl of wine. 

And we shall cut the burning line. 

Hey, boys ; she scuds away, and by my head I know 

We round the world are sailing now. 

What dull men are those who tarry at home, 

When abroad they might wantonly roam, 

And gain such experience, and spy too 

Such countries and wonders as I do ? 

But, prithee, good pilot ! take heed what you do. 

And fail not to touch at Peru ; 

With gold there the vessel we'll store, 

And never, and never be poor; 

No, never be poor any more. 

What do I mean ? what thoughts do me misguide ? 

As well upon a staff may witches ride 

Their fancied journeys in the air. 

As I sail round the ocean in this chair : 

'Tis true ; but yet this chair which here you see. 

For all its quiet now and gravity. 

Has wander'd and has travell'd more 

Than ever beast, or fish, or bird, or ever tree, before. 

In ev'ry air and ev'ry sea 't has been, 

'T has compass'd all the earth, and all the heav'ns 't has seen. 

Let not the Pope's itself with this compare ; 

This is the only universal chair, 

21 



322 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

The pious wanderer's fleet, sav'd from the flame, 

(Which did the relics still of Troy pursue, 

And took them for its due) 

A squadron of immortal nymphs became; 

Still with their arms they row about the seas. 

And still make new and greater voyages : 

Nor has the first poetic ship of Greece 

(Though now a star she so triumphant shew. 

And guide her sailing successors below, 

Bright as her ancient freight, the shining Fleece) 

Yet to this day a quiet harbour found, 

The tide of heaven still carries her around : 

Only Drake's sacred vessel, which before 

Had done, and had seen more 

Than those have done or seen, 

Ev^n since they goddesses and this a star has been. 

As a reward for all her labour past. 

Is made the seat of rest at last. 

Let the case now quite alter'd be. 

And as thou went'st abroad the world to see. 

Let the world now come to see thee. 

The world will do't ; for curiosity 

Does, no less than devotion, pilgrims make ; 

And I myself, who now love quiet, too. 

As much almost as any chair can do. 

Would yet a journey take 

An old wheel of that chariot to see 

Which Phaeton so rashly brake : 

Yet what could that say more than these remains of Drake ? 

Great relic ! thou, too, in this port of ease, 

Hast still one way of making voyages ; 

The breath of Fame, like an auspicious gale, 

(The greater trade-wind which ne'er does fail) 

Shall drive thee round the world, and thou shalt run 

As long around it as the sun. 

The streights of Time too narrow are for thee. 

Launch forth into an indiscover'd sea. 

And steer the endless course of vast eternity ; 

Take for thy sail this verse, and for thy pilot me. 



IV.] THE ARTS. 32S 

L. 

. THE SPHERE OF ARCHIMEDES. 

Jupiter in parvo cum cerneret sethera vitro, 

Kisit, et ad Superos talia verba dedit. 
Hoecine mortalis progressa potentia eurae ? 

Jam meus in fragili luditur orbe labor. 
Jura poli, rerumque fidem, legesque Deorum 

Ecce Syracosius transtulit arte senex. 
Inelusus variis famulatur spiritus astris, 

Et vivum eertis motibus urget opus. 
Percurrit proprium mentitus Signifer annum 

Et simulata novo Cynthia mense redit. 
Jamque suum volvens audax industria mundum, 

Gaudet, et humana sidera mente regit. 
Quid falso insontem tonitru Salmonea miror ? 

JEmula naturaB parva reperta manus. 

When Jove Arehimedes's sphere survey'd, 
He smil'd, and to the heav'nly dwellers said, 
Could mortal cunning such a work devise. 
In brittle glass, to imitate the skies ? 
The laws, and rules, and orders of our Heav'n, 
The Syracusan to his globe has giv'n. 
Well governed all his various stars appear, 
And whirl, in certain motion, round his sphere : 
His little Sun performs its annual race, 
And every month his Moon renews her face ; 
His brittle world the daring artist guides, 
And o'er the Stars a human mind presides : 
Salmoneus counterfeited thunder hurl'd, 
But here is one that counterfeits a World. 

The Latin is from Claudian, the English from Oldys's Epigrams. 
There is another version in Hawkins's Claudian. 

Cicero makes use of Arehimedes's Sphere to illustrate an argument in 
his Treatise on the Nature of the Gods. He writes that if this sphere, 
which exhibited the sun and moon, and the changes of day and night, 
were taken to the most barbarous countries of the earth, (he instances 

21—2 



324 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. IV. 

Britain as the ne plus ultra of barbarism and ignorance), no stupid inha- 
bitant of those regions would doubt but that contrivance had been 
employed in producing such an exquisite piece of art. Nevertheless, a 
large portion of mankind were less just towards nature than to Archi- 
medes, for whilst they acknowledged Archimedes's skill in imitation, they 
failed to recognize far greater contrivance and perfection of execution in 
the thing imitated, in the mechanism of the world. Archimedes's Sphere 
is alluded to in Ovid's Fastiy vi. 271, and by Lactantius, De Origine 
Erroris, Lib. n., who mentions that Archimedes's Sphere exhibited the 
phases of the moon, and the relative motions of all the heavenly bodies ; 
and the Father of the church argues, that what man can imitate God 
may have contrived. 






CHAPTER V. 
INSCRIPTIONS, 



REGNARD AT THE FROZEN SEA. 

Gallia nos genuit, vidit nos Africa, Gangem 
Hausimus, Europamque oculis lustravimus omnem, 
Casibus et variis acti terraque marique 
Hie tandem stetimus, nobis ubi defuit orbis. 

La France nous a donne la naissance. Nous avons vu 
I'Afrique, et le Gange, parcouru toute TEurope. Nous 
avons eu diiFerentes aventures tant par mer que par terre; 
et nous nous sommes arretes en cet endroit ou le monde 
nous a manque. 

The Latin inscription was engraved by Regnard, August 22, a. d. 
1681, on a rock at the top of the mountain Metawara, the extreme 
point of land bounded by the Frozen Ocean, where he was stopt for 
want of world. 



n. 

SELDEN'S HOUSE. 



Gratus, Honeste, mihi ; non claudar, inito, sedeque 
Fur, abeas ; non sum facta soluta tibi. 

Thou'rt welcome, honest friend ; walk in, make free. 
Thief, get thee gone ; my doors are closed to thee. 



326 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

This inscription is carved upon the oak-lintel of Selden's cottage, in 
the village of Salvington, in Sussex. The Author had occasion to collect 
some memorials of Selden, and was led to search the Register of the 
Church of the parish in which the cottage is situated. He found in the 
Register an entry, " 1584, John, the son of John Selden, the minstrell, 
was baptised the xxth of December." The identity of the parish, and 
Christian name, and the circumstance that the date must be somewhere 
near that of Selden's birth, were almost enough to satisfy him that he 
had hit the right entry : but when he found " Son of John Selden the 
minstrell," he immediately recognized the object of his search, for he 
recollected that when this illustrious character, to whom the constitu- 
tion of the county is so deeply indebted, and whose learning was the 
admiration of Europe, was yet a young Oxonian, and was honoured by 
dining at Sir Robert Alford's table, some person asked the Knight, 
" Who was that remarkably acute lad at the bottom of the table ?" 
To which the Squire replied, "He is the son of the minstrell whose 
fiddle you hear in the hall." 



III. 
ARIOSTO'S HOUSE. 



Parva, sed apta mihi, sed nuUi obnoxia, sed non 
Sordida, parta meo sed tamen sere domus. 

This house is small, but it is suited to my wants; it 
offends no one ; it is not mean, and I built it with my own 
money. 

On Ariosto being asked why he built a very simple house, after 
having so beautifully described sumptuous palaces, handsome porticos, 
and agreeable fountains? — He repHed, "It is much easier to build with 
words than with stones." 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 327 

IV. 

GIL BLASTS HOUSE. 

Inveni portum : Spes, et Fortuna, valete ! 
Sat me lusistis, ludite nunc alios. 

Mine haven's found ; Fortune, and Hope, adieu ! 
Mock others now, for I have done with you. 

In Dr Wellesley's Polyglot Anthologia there are three English trans- 
lations of this distich, besides versions in Italian and German. The 
original was in Greek. In a literary contention between Sir Thomas 
More and Lily, which they called their Progynmastica, these geniuses 
vied in translating Greek epigrams into Latin verse. Their translations 
in the present instance nearly coincide. They differ slightly from the 
inscription in the text. More has Jam portvm inveni in the first line, 
and nil mihi vohiscum est, (which is a quotation) in the second line. Lily 
has, in the second Une, nil mihi vohiscum. 

The Inscription in the text is supposed to have been written in 
letters of gold over the door of the rural mansion of Gil Bias, when 
that hero is dismissed, after his labours and dangers, to repose and 
happiness. Walter Scott, very sensibly as it would seem, expresses a 
regret that Le Sage, after the first pubhcation of his unrivalled work, 
was induced to draw Gil Bias forth again from his retreat. It may be 
observed, by the way, that Walter Scott's description of the last days of 
Le Sage is a very interesting and afiecting piece of biography. It 
appears that for some years previous to his death, his mind was in a 
state of fatuity, except that frequently, about mid-day, the sun, in fine 
weather, had the effect of partially resuscitating his fallen intellects, 
when, sometimes for an hour or more, his genius would blaze out with 
its former vivacity, and then again sink under an echpse. 

The lines in the text are imitated, with the addition of a pleasing 
sentiment, by Benserade, who inscribed them on the bark of a tree, at his 
rural retreat. 

Adieu fortune, honneurs, adieu vous et les votres, 

Je viens ici vous oublier ; 
Adieu toi-meme, amour ! bien plus que tous les autres 

Difficile a congedier. 



328 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

V. 

GORHAMBURY. 

(A) 
Inscription over the Entrance Hall. 

Usee cum perfecit Nicholaus tecta Baconus, 

Elizabeth regni lustra fuere duo : 
Factus eques, magni custos fuit ille sigilli : 

Gloria sit soli tota tributa Deo. 

Nicholas Bacon completed this edifice in the tenth 
year of Queen Elizabeth*'s reign. He was created a knight, 
and was keeper of the Great Seal, Be glory to God alone I 



(B) 

INSCRIPTIONS IN A BANQUETTING HOUSE, 

Hating the Liberal Arts represented on its walls j over them the pic- 
tures of such eminent characters as had excelled in each; and under 
them Verses expressive of the benefits resulting from their cultivation. 

GRAMMAR. 

Lex sum Sermonis, linguarum regula certa, 
Qui me non didicit csetera nulla petat. 

O'er speech I rule, all tongues my laws restrain, 
"Who knows not me seeks other arts in vain. 

(Pictures of Donatus, Lilly, Priscian). 

ARITHMETIC. 

Ingenium exacuo, numerorum arcana recludo. 
Qui numeros didicit, quid dedicisse nequit. 

The wit to sharpen, I my secrets hide ; 

These once explor'd, you'll soon know all beside. 

(Pictures of Stifihus, Budseus, Pythagoras). 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 329 

LOGIC. 

Divide multiplices, res explanoque latentes, 
Vera exquiro, falsa arguo, cuncta probo. 

I sep'rate things perplex'd, all clouds remove, 
Truth I search out, show error, all things prove. 

(Pictures of Aristotle, Rodolph, Porphyry, Seton). 

MUSIC. 

Mitigo mcerores, et acerbas lenio curas, 
Gestiat ut placidis mens hilarata sonis. 

Sorrow I soothe, relieve the troubled mind. 
And by sweet sounds exhilarate mankind. 

(Pictures of Arion, Terpander, Orpheus). 

RHETORIC. 

Me duce splendescit gratis prudentia verbis, 
Jamque ornata nitet quae fuit ante rudis. 

By me the force of wisdom is display'd, 

And sense shines most when in my robes array'd. 

(Pictures of Demosthenes, Cicero, Isocrates, Quintilian). 

GEOMETRY. 

Corpora describo, rerum et quo singula pacto 
Apte sunt formis appropriata suis. 

What bodies are, and all their forms I shew. 
The bounds of each, and their proportions too. 

(Pictures of Archimedes, Euclid, Strabo, ApoUonius). 

ASTROLOGY. 

Astrorum lustrans cursus, viresque potentes 
Elicio miris fata futura modis. 

The motions of the starry train, 

And what those motions mean, I do explain. 

(Pictures of Regiomontanus, Haly, Copernicus, Ptolemy). 



330 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

It may not be inappropriate to add here Ben Jonson's Birth-Day Ode 
upon Lord Bacon, as it is classically addressed to the Lav, or Household- 
Spirit of the mansion in which Bacon was born, whom he supposes to 
find busy in preparing the celebration of some religious rite : allusion is 
also made to the founder of Gorhambury. 

Hail, happy Genius of this ancient pile ! 

How comes it all things so about thee smile ? 

The fire, the wine, the men! and, in the midst, 

Thou stand'st as if some mystery thou didst. 

Pardon, I read it in thy face, the day 

For whose returns, and many, all these pray; 

And so do I. This is the sixtieth year. 

Since Bacon, and thy Lord, was bom, and here. 

Son to the grave wise keeper of the seal. 

Fame and foundation of the English weal. 

England's High Chancellor ; the destin'd heir 

In his soft cradle to his father's chair. 

Whose even thread the fates spin round and full. 

Out of their choicest, and their whitest wool ! 

'Tis a brave cause of joy ! let it be known; 

For 't were a narrow gladness kept thy own. 

Give me a deep-crown'd bowl, that I may sing 

In raising him the wisdom of my king. 
To the list of eminent Astrologers, a modern Poet might have added 
the names of Lord Burleigh, Lily, (Hudibras's Sidrophel), and Dryden. 



VI. 

EMBLEMS. 
(A) 
Multa licet fido Sapiens in peetore condat, 
Plura avido tamen usque appetit ingenio. 

Though a sage has his mind stored with wisdom, yet 
he is always craving for fresh knowledge. 

(B) 
Quid subus atque rosis ? nunquam mens ebria luxu 
Virtutis studiis esse dicata potest. 

What does the Boar do among roses ? A mind be- 
sotted with luxury can never appreciate or enjoy the sweets 
of Virtue. 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 331 

(C) 

Ericium hie qui ceu gradientem conspicis uvam, ^ 
Frugi sis, et opes tu qiioque linque tuis. 

Behold the hedgehog covered with grapes that it has 
plucked from the vines to carry home for its young ones : 
it has been so industrious first in plucking and then in 
rolling itself among the grapes, that it has the appearance 
of a walking vineyard. Imitate the animal's example ; be 
frugal, and leave behind you a sufficiency for your family. 

The first verses were inscribed under a picture of a Bird of Prey 
in the air, with a small bird in its talons, whilst it flies in pursuit of some 
other birds. The second distich is under a picture of a Boar tramphng 
upon roses. The last is under a picture of a Hedgehog rolled up, 
having its prickles covered with grapes. 

Emblems, with verses, (generally Latin) to explain them, were very 
commonly painted on the panels of the closets, cabinets, or oratories in 
the time of Queen Elizabeth. They were a sort of picture parables, 
by means of which the Latian Muses strewed many a moral precept 
in the walks of our forefathers, whichever way they turned their eyes. 



VII. 

STADT-HOUSE AT DELFT. 

Haec domus amat, punit, conservat, honorat, 
Nequitiem, pacem, scelera, jura, probos. 

This House hates vice, loves peace, swift vengeance flings 
Impartial upon malefactors' heads : 
To laws insulted timely succour brings. 
And glory round the brows of virtue sheds. 

The Latin and English are from Dr Watts's Correspondence. The 
bold disdain of quantities, and the perplexing task imposed upon the 
reader of marrying the verbs to their proper substantives, may remind 
us of a passage in the Scaligeriana : " Les Allemans ne se soucient pas 
quel vin ils boivent, pourveau qui ce soit vin, ni quel Latin ils parlent^ 
pourveau que ce soit Latin." 



332 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

VIII. 
THE ARSENAL OF BREST. 

Quae Pelago sese Arx aperit metuenda Britanno, 
Classibus armandis, omnique accommoda Bello, 
Praedonum terror, Francis tutela carinis, 
iEternae Regni excubise, domus hospita Martis, 
Magni opus est Lodoiei. Hunc omnes omnibus undis 
Agnoscant Yenti Dominum, et maria alta tremiseant. 

Palais digne de Mars, qui fournis pour armer 
Cent Bataillons sur terre, et cent Vaisseaux sur mer, 
De I'Empire des Lys foudroyant corps-de-garde : 
Que jamais sans palir Corsaire ne regarde : 

De Louis le plus grand des Rois 

Vous estes I'immortel ouvrage. 
Vents, c'est icy qu'il faut luy rendre hommage, 
Mer, c'est icy qu'il faut prendre ses loix. 

The Latin is by Santeuil : the French version is by Corneille. 



IX. 



A COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, DsT THE FORM OF AN 
AMPHITHEATRE. 

Ad csedes hominum prima amphitheatra patebant 
Hic longum ut discant vivere, nostra patent. 

Si dans les siecles idolatres 

Ces superbes Amphitheatres 

Ou Ton admire encor la grandeur des Romains, 

S'ouvroient pour avancer le trepas des humains 

Cette aveugle fureur ne se voit plus suivie : 

Les nostres sont ouverts pour prolonger la vie. 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 333 



THE CRIMINAL COURT OF THE CHASTELET. 

Hie PoensD scelerum ultrices posuere Tribunal, 
Sontibus unde tremor, civibus inde salus. 

De ce terrible Tribunal, 

Des noirs forfaits Tecueil fatal, 
Themis met tous les jours, du meme coup de foudre, 
Le Citoyen en paix, et le eoupable en poudre. 



XI. 

THE CLOCK OF THE PALACE OF JUSTICE. 

Tempora labuntur, rapidis fugientibus horis, 
iEternse hie leges, fixaque jura manent. 

Time glides along, the hours flit away, 
Justice is fixed, and laws unvarying stay. 

Lord Coke, in his third Institute, relates an anecdote concerning the 
Clock of Westminster Hall : he writes that " Justice Ingham paid, in 
the reign of Edward I. eight hundred marks for a fine, for that a poor 
man being fined thirteen shillings and fourpence, the said Justice, 
moved with pity, caused the roll to be razed, and made the fine six 
shillings and eight pence. This case Justice Southcote remembered, 
when Catlyn, Chief Justice in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, would have 
ordered the razure of a roll in the like case, which Southcote, one of 
the Judges of that Court, utterly denied to assent to, and said openly, 
that ' he meant not to build a Clock-house :* ' for,' said he, ' with the 
fine that Ingham paid for the like matter, the Clock-house at West- 
minster was built, and furnished with a Clock, which continueth to this 
day.* " There has been some scepticism on the subject of this highly 
authoritative tradition, founded on an opinion that no such striking 
memento could have been supplied in this country for a century after 
the reign of Edward I. The Poet in the text might, perhaps, have found 
a more pointed and truer antithesis in the " Law's delay." 



334 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 



XII. 

INSCRIPTIONS AT THEOBALD'S, IN HONOUR OF JAMES I. 
AND THE KING OF DENMARK. 

Miraris, eur hospitio te accepimus HoraB, 
Cujus ad obsequium non satis annus erat ? 

Nempe quod adveniant ingentia gaudia raro, 
Et quando adveniant vix datur hora frui. 

Are you surprised that we Hours have tendered you 
hospitality : you, to whom the homage of a Year is not 
adequate ? The reason is, that great joys seldom come, 
and when they do come, there is scarce an hour allowed 
for their fruition. 

Hospitio qui te cepit, famulantibus Horis, 
Cedere abhinc, nulla eoncomitante, sinit ; 

Nempe omnes Horas veniendi duxit amicas, 
Sed discedendi nulla Minuta probat. 

The Earl of Salisbury, who had the honour of entertain- 
ing you as his guest with the aid of the ministering Hours, 
now suflPers you to depart without one of them in your 
train : it is because he deemed the Hours of your coming 
friendly to him ; he does not approve of a single Minute of 
your departure. 

When the two kings arrived at Theobald's, they found over the porch 
the effigies of the Three Hours sitting upon clouds : one bore a sun-dial, 
another a clock, and the third an hour-glass ; they signified justice, law, 
and peace. Ben Jonson writes in a note that the " Greek names of the 
Hours were Eunomie, Dice, and Irene (Law, Justice, and Peace). They 
were fabled to be the daughters of Jupiter and Themis, their station was 
at the gates of heaven ; and therefore, our author, consonant to poetic 
story, hath placed them over the porch of the house." The Hours 
appear to have had the power of speech, and to have thus addressed the 
sovereigns : 

Enter, long'd-for princes, bless these bow'rs. 

And us, the three, by you made happy Hours. 

We that include all time, yet never knew 

Minute like this, or objects like to you. 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. SS5 

Ben Jonson's Masques and Entertainments have not been sufficiently 
attended to by writers on the manners of the reigns of James I. and 
Charles I., and on the domestic habits and private characters of those sove- 
reigns. The Entertainment at Theobald's abounds more with Latin speeches 
and inscriptions than others, as it may be collected that the king of Den- 
mark did not understand English ; whether he understood Latin is not so 
clear either one way or the other. Sir John Harrington's description of 
this entertainment would lead us to conjecture that his Danish majesty 
was less at home in conning " Gems of Latin poetry/' than in dancing 
with the queen of Sheba, who came on a visit to Solomon, but not being- 
steady in her walk, upset her offerings over the clothes of the royal Dane. 
Sir John writes that few of the female allegorical characters performed 
their parts soberly : 

" Now did appear in rich dress, Faith, Hope, and Charity ; Hope did 
essay to speak, but wine rendered her endeavours so feeble that she with- 
drew, and hoped the king would excuse her brevity. Faith was then 
alone, for I am certain she was not joined with good works, and left the 
court in a staggering condition. Charity came to the king's feet, and 
seemed to cover the multitude of sins her sisters had committed ; in some 
sort she made obeisance, and brought gifts, but said she would return home 
again, as there was no gift which heaven had not already given his majesty: 
she then returned to Faith and Hope, who were both sick in the lower 
hall." Afterwards he mentions, that Victory and Peace made their 
appearance, and he notices that Peace, " much contrary to her semblance, 
most rudely made war with her olive-branch, and laid on the pates of 
those who did oppose her coming." Sir John concludes by observing 
that " the Danes have again conquered the Britons, for I see no man, or 
woman either, that can now command himself or herself." 



XIII. 
THE ARSENAL AT PARIS. 

^tna hsec Henrico Vuleania tela ministrat ; 
Tela Giganteos debellatura furores. 

iEtna furnishes to Henry these Vuleanian weapons 
weapons capable of subduing the fury of giants. 



336 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Cii. 

XIV. 
ORANGERY AT CHANTILLY. 

Hie Hyemes nil juris habent, ver regnat, et sestas 
Ingredere — aeternas Flora recludet opes. 

Here Winter is devoid of power — Spring and Summer 
are regnant. Enter — Flora will disclose to you her never- 
fading treasures. 

Martial has several notices of the hot-houses of the ancient Romans, 
and he makes particular mention of artificially-forced roses (festinatas 
rosas). He dwells on the appearance in hot-houses of the grapes which 
are covered, and yet not concealed from view : 

Condita perspicua vivit vindemia gemma, 
Et tegitur felix, nee tamen uva latet. 

And he observes on the same appearance of hot-house flowers, as lilies 
and roses : 

Condita sic puro numerantur lilia vitro. 
Sic prohibet tenuis gemma latere rosas. 



XV. 

MILTON'S ALCOVE. 



Hie media te luce loco, mediisque diei 
Stas circumfusus flammis : tentoria figo 
Haec radiata tibi, Milton ! quia nubila sacro 
Carmine nulla tuo, comes illustrissime solis ! 
Sic medio stans sole tuus nitet Uriel, auretim 
Diffunditque jubar splendens, et lucida tela : 
Celestes inter coetus pulcherrimus ille, 
Mortales inter veluti tu maximus omnes. 

Here, mighty Milton ! in the blaze of noon, 
Amid the broad effulgence, here 1 fix 



I 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 337 

Thy radiant tabernacle. Nought is dark 
In thee, thou bright companion of the sun ! 
Thus thy own Uriel in its centre stands 
Illustrious, waving glory round him ! he, 
Fairest archangel of all spirits in heaven, 
As of the sons of men the greatest thou. 



XVI. 

ASSIGNATION SEAT. 



Nerine Galataea, thymo mihi dulcior Hyblae, 
Candidior cygnis, hedera formosior alba. 
Cum primum pasti repetent praesepia tauri, 
Si qua tui Corydonis habet te cura, venito. 

O Galataea ! than the swans more white. 
Sweeter than honey, than the roes more light, 
O, don't forget, if Corydon be dear. 
To meet him, where, at eve, he '11 seek thee — here. 

This was one of the numerous Inscriptions at the Leasowes, or the 
Ferme omee of Shenstone, of whom Gray writes, rather cynically, that 
his "whole philosophy consisted in living, against his will, in retirement, 
and in a place which his taste had adorned, but which he only enjoyed 
when people of note came to see and commend it : his correspondence is 
about nothing else than this place, and his own writings with two or 
three neighbouring clergymen, who wrote verses also." In the verses 
appended to Shenstone's works there are several poems eulogistic of the 
Leasowes. American travellers who are conversant with much of our 
early literature that is almost forgotten in England, not unfrequently 
make inquiries after the cultivated grounds, and classical inscriptions of 
thei Leasowes. Mason, in his poem of The English Garden^ thus apostro- 
phizes Shenstone, with an intimation that he was a better gardener than a 
poet: 

Nor, Shenstone, thou 

Shalt pass without thy meed, thou son of peace ! 

Who knewest, perchance, to harmonize thy shades 

Still softer than thy song ; yet was that song 

Nor rude, nor inharmonious, when attun'd 

To pastoral plaint, or tale of slighted love. 

22 



338 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XVII. 

A MAZE. 
(A) 

Ut semel incautam implicuere negotia mentem, 
Abripit indeprensus et irremeabilis error, 
Ni regat oblato stabilis Prudentia filo. 

As soon as the youthful mind becomes entangled in 
the affairs of the world, it is liable to be misled into irreme- 
diable errors, unless Prudence give a clew to guide the 
wanderer through the Labyrinth of life. 

(B) 

Caeca regit filo prudens vestigia Theseus : 
To Ratio et Pietas, fraus ubi multa, regat. 

The prudent Theseus, by means of a clew, tracked his 
way through the dark labyrinth of Crete. Let Reason and 
Piety direct your footsteps through paths where frauds are 
apt to divert you from the right way. 

(C) 

Ad dextram, ad Isevam, porro, retro, itque reditque, 

Deprensum in laqueo quem labyrinthus habet. 
Et legit et relegit gressus, sese explicet unde, 

Perplexum quserens unde revolvat iter. 
Sta modo, respira paulum, simul accipe filum ; 

Certius et melius non Ariadne dabit. 
Sic te, sic solum, expedies errore: viarum 

Principium invenias, id tibi finis erit. 

From right to left, and to and fro, 
Caught in a labyrinth, you go, 
And turn, and turn, and turn again, 
To solve the mystery, but in vain ; 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. S39 

Stand still and breathe, and take from me 
A clew, that soon shall set you free ! 
Not Ariadne, if you meet her. 
Herself could serve you with a better. 
You enter'd easily — find where — 
And make, with ease, your exit there ! 

The first two inscriptions are by Santeuil, the last is by Vincent 
Bourne, translated by Cowper ; the clew which these two last authors 
give, is like the recipe for catching a bird by putting salt on its tail. 



XVIII. 

WATER-WORKS AT MARLY. 

Sequana jamdudum Neptunia jura perosus. 

Imperils paret jam, Lodoice, tuis. 
Aspice, ut ad nutum tibi serviat omnibus undis, 

Quo tu cumque vocas nobile flumen, adest. 
Te propter sese Nereo subducere tentat, 

Et vectigales jam tibi pendit aquas. 

La Seine ne veut plus obeir qu'a tes loix, 

Voy comme tous ses flots dans leur course nouvelle 

Se repandent par tout, ou ta voix les appelle. 

Grand Prince, pour toy seul des tyranniques droits 

Qu'exige 1' Ocean, elle se va soustraire ; 

Et deja d'un tribut fidele et volontaire, 

Elle aime a se soumettre au plus juste des Eois. 

The Machine at Marly was erected by Louis XIV. for the purpose of 
conveying the water of the Seine to Versailles. 



22—2 



340 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XIX. 

A GROTTO NEAR A STREAM. 

Hsec amat arva Salus, roseis dea pulchra labellis, 
Isteque sopitam ssepe recessus habet ; 

Si tibi pumicea sit non inventa sub umbra, 
Insili — et in gelidis invenietur aquis. 

Health, rose-lipped cherub, haunts this spot, 

She slumbers oft in yonder nook ; 
If in the shade you find her not, 

Plunge — and you'll find her in the brook. 



XX. 

THE FOUNTAIN OF THE BRIDGE OF NOSTRE-DAME. 

Sequana cum primum Kegin93 allabitur Urbi, 

Tardat praecipites ambitiosus aquas. 
Captus amore loci cursum obliviscitur, anceps 

Quo fluat, et dulces nectit in urbe moras. 
Hinc varios implens fluctu subeunte canales, 

Fons fieri gaudet, qui modo fiumen erat. 

Que le Dieu de la Seine a d*amour pour Paris ! 
Des qu'il en pent baiser les rivages cheris, 
De ses flots suspendus la descente plus douce 
Laisse douter aux yeux s'il avance ou rebrousse : 
Lui-mesme a son Canal il derobe ses eaux, 
Qu'il y fait rejallir par de secrettes veines, 
Et le plaisir qu'il prend a voir des lieux si beaux, 
De grand fleuve qu'il est, le transform e en Fontaines. 

The conceit of the Seine arresting its course, and converting part of its 
water into fountains, in order to gaze more leisurely on the beauties of 
Paris, seems to have been very popular with the French poets. The 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 341 

French version is by Coraeille, but several other French versions of the 
same epigram have been published. Santeuil has lavished prettinesses 
on all the principal fountains of Paris in Latin verse, which gave occasion 
to the following distich : 

Santolius docte Parisinos carmine Fontes 

Dum canit, invidit Fons quoque Castalius. 

" Whilst Santeuil celebrates in his learned songs the Parisian Foun- 
tains, he kindles the envy of the Fountain of Castalia." 

Santeuil was a very eccentric character, and many droll anecdotes are 
preserved, as well relating to his manners as to his Latin poetry : one of 
the nimierous epitaphs upon him is the following : 

Ci-git le celebre Santeuil : 
Poetes et fous, prenez le deuil. 



XXI. 

THE FOUNTAIN DES QUATRE NATIONS, 
Opposite the Louvee. 

Sequanides flebant imo sub gurgite Nymphae, 
Cum premerent densae pigra fluenta rates 

Ingentem Luparam nee jam aspectare potestas, 
Tarpeii cedat cui domus alta Jovis. 

Hue alacres, Rex ipse vocat, succedite Nymphae, 
Hinc Lupara adverse littore tota patet. 

C'est trop gemir, Nymphes de Seine, 
Sous le poids des batteaux qui eachent vostre lit, 
Et qui ne vous laissoient entrevoir qu'avec peine 
Ce chef-d'oeuvre etonnant, dont Paris s'embellit : 

Dont la France s'enorgueillit. 
Par une route aisee, aussi-bien qu'impreveue. 
Plus haut que le rivage un Roy vous fait monter ; 

Qu'avez-vous plus a souhaiter ? 
Nymphes, ouvrez les yeux, tout le Louvre est en veue. 

The French version is by Comeille. The idea that Louis XTV. took 
pity on the Seine, because it lay low, and was covered with vessels and 



342 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Oh. 

boats, so as to obstruct its view of the Louvre, and consequently converted 
part of its waters into a fountain, that being so raised it might enjoy a 
full prospect of the Louvre, is a curious specimen of the conceits and 
sycophancy which were acceptable to the ears of the Great Monarch. 



XXII. 

THE FOmSTTAm OF PETITS-PERES. 

Quae dat aquas, saxo latet hospita Nympha sub imo 
Sic tu, cum dederis dona, latere velis. 

La Nymphe qui donne cette eau 
Au plus creux du rocher se cache : 
Suivez un example si beau, 
Donnez, sans vouloir qu'on le sache. 



XXIII. 

THE FOUNTAIN OF LA CHARITE. 

Quem posuit Pietas miserorum in commoda Fontem, 
Instar aquae, largas fundere suadet opes. 

Cette eau, qui se repand pour tant de malheureux, 
Te dit : Eepans ainsi tes largesses pour eux. 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 343 

XXIV. 

THE FOUNTAIN OF THE MARKET MAUBERT. 

Qui tot venales populo locus exhibet escas, 
Sufficit et faciles, ne sitis urat, aquas. 

Pour vous sauver de la faim devorante, 
Si dans ces lieux on vous vend des secours, 
Peuples, chez moi, contre la soif brulante, 
Sans interest, vous en trouvez toujours. 



XXV. 

THE FOUNTAIN OF THE RUE DE RICHELIEU. 

Qui quondam magnum tenuit moderamen aquarum 
RicheUus, Fonti plauderet ipse novo. 

Armand, qui gouvernoit tout Pempire des eaux, 
Comme il donnoit le branle aux affaires du Monde, 
En des lieux si cheris, par des conduits nouveaux 
Lui-meme avec plaisir verroit couler cette onde. 



XXVI. 

THE FOUNTAIN OF THE QUARTIER DES FINANCIERS. 

Auri sacra sitis non larga expletur opum vi 
Hinc disce seterno fonte levare sitim. 

L'infame soif de For ne scaur oit s'etancher 

Par des richesses perissables ; 
Homme, pour etre heureux, songe done a ehercher 

La source des biens veritables. 



344 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 



XXVII. 

A FOUNTAIN, IN HONOUR OF QUEEN ANNE AND THE 
DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. 

Quocunque seterno properatis, flumina, lapsu, 
Divisis late terris, populisque remotis, 
Dicite, nam vobis Tamesis narravit et Ister 
Anna quid imperils potuit, quid Marlburus armis. 

Ye active streams, where'er your waters flow. 
Let distant climes and furthest nations know, 
What ye from Thames and Danube have been taught. 
How Anne commanded, and how Marlborough fought. 

The Latin and English are both by Prior ; the design of the fountain 
included figures of Queen Anne and the Duke of Marlborough, with a 
triumphal arch in the center, and the chief Rivers of the world round the 
whole work. Sir Henry Wotton, in discoursing upon architecture remarks : 
*' Fountains are figured, or only plain water- works, of either of which I will 
describe a matchless pattern. The first done by the famous hand of 
Michael Angelo is the figure of a sturdy woman, washing and winding 
linen clothes ; in which act she wrings out the water that made the foun- 
tain. The other doth merit some larger expression : there went a long, 
straight, mossy, walk of competent breadth, green and soft under foot, listed 
on both sides with an aqueduct of white stone, breast high, which had a 
hollow channel on the top, where ran a pretty trickling stream ; on the edge 
whereof were couched very thick, all along, certain small pipes of lead 
in little holes ; so neatly that they could not be well perceived, till by the 
turning of a cock, they did spout over interchangeably from side to side, 
above man's height, in forms of arches, without any intersection or meet- 
ing aloft, because the pipes were not exactly opposite ; so as the beholder, 
besides that which was fluent in the aqueduct on both hands in his view, 
did walk, as it were, under a continual bower and hemisphere of water, 
without any drop falling on him; an invention for refreshment surely 
far excelling all the Alexandrian delicacies and pneumatics of Hero.'* 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. S45 

XXVIII. 

BAPTISMAL FONT AT FLORENCE. 

Quidquid ab antiqua manavit origine morbi, 
Purgabunt istse (si modo credis) aquae. 

Whatever stain attaches from original sin, will be washed 
away by these waters, if you have only faith in their 
efficacy. 

Several old English Fonts are to be met with in private gardens, as, 
for example, that of the old Harrow chm"ch, which was preserved by 
a lady, after it had been condemned by the churchwardens for the use of 
the parish-roads. Our ancient poor-boxes had usually mottoes or posies, 
according to Beaumont and Fletcher, (in their play of the Spanish Curate,) 
who may have furnished Hogarth with a hint for the spider's-web that 
covers the door of his poor-box : 

The poor man's box is there : if ye find anything 
Besides the posT/, and that half-rubb'd out too, 
For fear it should awaken too much charity, 
Give it to pious uses ; that is, spend it. 



XXIX. 

THE HOLY CROSS. 



Haec ilia Sedes, qua docuit Deus ; 
Vitalis, in quo nos peperit, Thorns ; 
Currus triumphantis, Tribunal 
Judicis, atque litantis Ara, 

Voila la Chaire, ou Jesus nous instruit ; 

Le Lit, ou pour jamais son sang nous reproduit ; 

Le Siege, ou se rendra la justice supreme ; 

Le Char, ou jusqu'au Ciel la gloire I'a conduit ; 

Et VAutel, ou pour nous il s'immole lui-meme. 



346 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

The pulling down of Charing Cross is one of the most amusing pieces 
of ancient poetry in the Vercy Reliques. The hot-cross-bun was the most 
popular symbol of the Eoman Catholic religion that the Reformation had 
left in England, until the recent mania for retrograding the progress of 
the human intellect through its march of centuries. Hot-cross-buns were 
the consecrated loaves bestowed in the church as alms, and to those who 
from any impediment could not receive the host. They were made of the 
dough from whence the host itself was taken, and were given by the 
priest to the people after mass : they ought to be kissed before eating. 
Of all inscriptions on a cross, the most memorable is that represented to 
have been aflSxed to the cross which was revealed in a vision to Constant 
tine, when marching with his army into Italy : iv rovra vUa. 



XXX. 

A STATUE OF THE VIRGIN MARY AT ROME. 

Virginis intactae cum veneris ante figuram, 
Prsetereundo cave, ne sileatur ave. 

Passing nigh our holy Lady, 
Don't forget to say an Ave. 



XXXI. 

THE GATE OF A MONASTERY OF BLACK-HOODED FRIARS. 
Hie intret nullus, nisi puUus sit sibi cuUus. 

Instant from this gate fly back, 
All whose hoods are not of black. 

The point aimed at in this and the last epigram cannot be well trans- 
lated, as it, in a great measure, consists in making the middle of the line 
rhyme to the end. 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 347 

XXXII. 

A CARVED HEAD OF ST PETER. 

Ecclesiam pro nave rego : Mihi climata mundi 
Sunt mare : Scripturae retia : Piscis homo. 

The church is my fishing-boat, the world is my sea, the 
scriptures are my nets, and my fish is man. 

Luther relates that he saw this inscription at Rome. There is a 
curious work, published a.d. 1606, entitled, A Book 0/ Angling or Fishing, 
wherein is shewed by conference with Scriptures, the agreement between the 
Fisherman and Fishes of both natures, temporal and spiritual, by Samuel 
Gardiner, Doctor of Divinitie. The heads of the chapters are as follow : 
1. Of the Fisherman's ship or boat. 2. Of the waters that are for this 
fishing. 3. Of the nets and angle-rod that are for this fishing. 4. Of the 
Fishermen, that principally are appointed for this office. 5. Of the Fish- 
erman's baytes. 6. Of the Fishes that the Spiritual Angler only fisheth 
for. 7. The sympathie of natures between temporal and spiritual Fish. 
8. Of Angling of both kindes. 



XXXIII. 

LUTHER'S GLASS. 



Dat vitrum vitro Jonae vitrum ipse Lutherus, 
Se similem ut fragili noscat uterque vitro. 

Luther, who is a glass, presents this glass to Justus Jo- 
nas, who is also a glass, in order that both friends may 
always bear in mind that they are nothing but fragile glass. 

There is a German inscription on the same glass yessel, " One glass 
presents a glass to another glass." This present was made shortly before 
Luther died. 



348 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXXIV. 

AN ^OLIAN HARP. 

Salve, quae fingis proprio modulamine carmen, 
Salve, Memnoniam vox imitata Ijram ! 

Dulce O divinumque sonans sine poUicis ictu, 
Dives naturae simplicis, artis inops ! 

Talia quae incultae dant mellea labra puellse, 
Talia sunt faeiles quae modulantur aves. 

On the other side. 

Hail, heav'nly harp, where Memnon's skill is shown, 

That eharm'st the ear with music all thy own I 

Which, though untouch'd, canst rapturous strains impart, 

O rich of genuine nature, free from art ! 

Such the wild warblings of the sylvan throng. 

So simply sweet the untaught virgin's song. 

It may be allowed to illustrate the subject of the text, by the beauti- 
ful description of the jEolian Harp, in the Castle of Indolence — that same 
"airy harp," to which Collins, in his Ode on Thomson's death, has 
imparted an additional interest of which it might have been scarcely 
thought susceptible. 

A certain music, never known before, 

Here luU'd the pensive melancholy mind ; 

Full easily obtain'd. Behoves no more, 

But sidelong, to the gently-waving wind. 

To lay the well-tun'd instrument reclin'd ; 

From which, with airy flying fingers light, 

Beyond each mortal touch the most refin'd. 

The god of winds drew sounds of deep delight, 
Whence, with just cause, the harp of JEolus it hight. 

Ah me! what hand can touch the string so fine? 
Who up the lofty diapason roll 
Such sweet, such sad, such solemn airs divine, 
Then let them down again into the soul? 
Now rising love they fann'd; now pleasing dole 
They breath'd, in tender musings, through the heart; 
And now a graver sacred strain they stole. 
As when seraphic hands an hymn impart : 
Wild- warbling nature all, above the reach of art ! 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 84a 

XXXV. 

AN ORGAN. 

Hie, dociles venti resono se carcere solvunt, 
Et cantum accepta pro libertate rependunt. 

Here docile winds, from echoing prison free. 
Pay us with music for their liberty. 

Gra/s pealing anthem appears borrowed from Milton's : 

There let the pealing organ blow, 

To the full-voiced choir below, 

In service high, and anthems clear, 

As may with sweetness through mine ear 

Dissolve me into ecstacies. 

And bring all heaven before mine eyes. 

The organ is not unworthily praised by Dryden : 

But, oh! what art can teach, 

What human voice can reach. 
The sacred organ's praise? 
Notes inspiring holy love. 
Notes that wing their heavenly ways, 

To mend the choirs above. 

Orpheus could lead the savage race ; 
And trees uprooted left their place, 

Sequacious of the lyre : 
But bright Cecilia rais'd the wonder higher : 
When to her organ vocal breath was given, 
An angel heard, and straight appear'd, 

Mistaking earth for heaven. 

The inscription on the great Haerlem organ is, Non nisi motu cano, 
alluding to the quantity of labour necessay for putting it in action. It 
has twelve bellows, and 5000 pipes, the bellows are each nine feet long 
by five broad, the greatest pipe is thirty-eight feet, its diameter fifteen 
inches. There was a famous musical contest between two organ-builders, 
which came off in the Temple church. Blow and Furcell played for one 
of the artists, and Lully, the Queen's organist, for the other ; the decision 
was given by the infamous Lord Chancellor Jefferies, a person, perhaps, 
as little competent to decide, as was Justice Midas between Pan and 
Apollo : for, if the converse of Shakspere's opinion be true, a Jeflferies 
could never have been " moved by concord of sweet sounds." 



350 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXXVL 

D'ALEMBERT'S TREATISE ON THE WINDS. 

Haec ego de ventis, dum ventorum ocyor alis 
Palantes agit Austriacos Fredericus, et orbi, 
Insignis lauro, ramum prsetendet olivae. 

I publish this treatise on the Winds, at a time when, 
swifter than the wings of the Winds, the Great Frederic 
drives before him the routed army of Austria; and, suf- 
ficiently illustrious in his laurels, now stretches forth his 
olive-branch to the world. 

This was the motto or inscription adopted for D'Alembert's Essay on 
the Winds, to which a prize had been adjudged by the Academy of 
Berlin. 



XXXVII. 

DEVICE IN BELLENDEN'S BOOK DE STATU, 

Fama trium insignit Numen : cor signat amorem, 
Tres quia personas Numinis, unus amor. 

Numine, vester amor patrumque cor in tribus unum 
Crescit ; adunantur Kegia corda trium. 

Hinc Deus impertet vobis sua symbola : vestris 
Vultque sit in titulis. In tribus unus amor. 

There is one love between Prince Henry, Prince Charles, 
and the Princess Elizabeth: hence the Deity grants you 
three, his own symbols, and wills that you should choose 
for your mottoes, " One love in three." 

The verses in the text are placed under a device representing a tri- 
angle, in the corners of which are the letters H. C. E, respectively. In 
the middle of the triangle are three hearts surmounted by a crown, and 
decorated with laurel. In a small interstice between the three hearts is 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. S5I 

placed the letter J, to signify King James, as the other letters denote 
Henry, Charles, and Elizabeth. 

These verses and device are prefixed to the celebrated treatise of Bel- 
lenden, in a very learned and eloquent Latin preface to which Dr Parr, 
amidst reflections de omnibus rebus, imputes to Dr Middleton, that in his 
Life of Cicero he had been guilty of unacknowledged plagiarism from 
Bellenden. The verses and device may be thought very characteristic of 
the reign of King James, and may be compared with the learned com- 
pliments to that king, paid by the public orator at Cambridge, mentioned 
in a former chapter. Barclay, in a Latin poem on a cock-fight, which was 
honoured by the presence of King James, writes that the cocks felt too 
much honoured in dying for his majesty's diversion : 

Senserunt Volucres 
Se digno nimium interire fato. 



XXXVIII. 
MEDAL FOR LOUIS XIV. APPLIED TO QUEEN ANNE. 

Proximus, et similis regnas, Ludovice, Tonanti, 
Vim summam, summa cum pietate, geris. 

Magnus es, expansis alis, sed maximus armis, 
Protegis hinc Anglos, Teutones inde feris. 

Quin coeant toto Titania foedera Eheno, 
Ula aquilam tantum, Gallia fulmen habet. 

Next to the Thunderer let Anna stand, 

In piety supreme, as in command : 

Fam'd for victorious arms, and generous aid, 

Young Austria's refuge, and fierce Bourbon's dread. 

Titanian leagues in vain shall brave the Rhine, 

When to the eagle you the thunder join. 

The point turns on the eagle and the thunder being usual appendages 
to the figure of Jupiter, and the eagle being the German, as formerly the 
Roman ensign. In this respect the last line of the Latin inscription is 
more pointed than the conclusion of the EngMsh one, which is by Granville 
Lord Lansdowne. 



352 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

XXXIX. 

INSCRIPTIONS BY ANCIENT PRINTERS. 
(A) 

Sixtus hoc impressit : sed bis tamen ante revisit 

Egregius doctor Perrus Oliverius : 
At tu quisquis emis, lector studiose, libellum 

Lastus emas, mendis nam caret istud opus. 

Sixtus printed this book, but the eminent Doctor Perrus 
Oliver previously revised it twice. Studious Header, who- 
ever thou be that buyest this book, congratulate yourself 
on your purchase : for it has no errata. 



(B) 

Stet liber hie donee fluctus formica marinos 
Ebibat, et totum testudo perambulet orbem. 

May this volume continue in motion, 
And in pages each day be unfurl'd ; 
Till an ant shall have drunk up the ocean, 
Or a tortoise have crawl'd round the world. 

When the printing of a book was looked upon as an achievement of 
no mean merit, it was usual to recommend it by a few Latin verses like 
the foregoing specimens, which were inscribed on works of the dates 
A.D. 1472, A.D. 1507. The first book that was printed in the English 
tongue was of the date a.d. 1471, by Caxton, at Cologne. This Printer, 
like the authors of the inscriptions in the text, was accustomed to gossip 
with his readers. On one occasion he thus addresses them: "And, 
furthermore, I desire ye would pray for the soul of the said worshipful 
Geofifry Chaucer, the fader, and first foundeur and embellisher of ornate 
eloquence in our English." 



I 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. S53 

XL. 

A BOTTLE BURIED, AND DUG UP ON STELLA'S BIRTH-DAY. 

Amphora quae moestum Unguis, Isetumque revises 
Arentem Dominum, sit tibi terra levis ! 

Tu quoque depositum serves, neve opprime, Marmor, 
" Amphora non meruit tarn pretiosa mori." 

O Bottle of Wine, that leavest thy master sad on ac- 
count of parting with you, but wilt make him glad when 
he meets you again, and thirsts for your contents ; may the 
earth lie lightly on thy breast! And thou, Marble, that 
guardest this deposit, afford the bottle protection, without 
crushing it. " So precious a Bottle ought not to die." 

The Latin inscription is by Dr Delany. One of Swift's Birth-day 
Odes to Stella is on the subject of the digging up of this long-buried 
bottle. The following lines occur : 

Behold the bottle, where it lies 
With neck elated toward the skies ! 
The god of winds and god of fire 
Did to its wondrous birth conspire, 
And Bacchus for the poet's use 
Pour'd in a strong inspiring juice. 
See ! as you raise it from its tomb, 
It drags behind a spacious womb ; 
And in the spacious womb contains 
A sovereign med'cine for the brains. 

The quotation in the last line is from an epigram of Martial, to be 
admired for its happy turn of thought, and lively style : 

Quid te, Tucca, juvat vetulo miscere Falerno 

In Vaticanis condita musta cadis ? 
Quid tantum fecere boni tibi pessima vina? 

Aut quid fecerunt optima vina mali ? 
De nobis facile est : scelus est jugulare Falernum, 

Et dare Campano toxica sseva mere. 
Convivse meruere tui fortasse perire : 

Amphora non meruit tarn pretiosa mori. 

Why blend old Falemian, good Tucca, we ask, 
With odious juice from thy "Vatican cask ? 

23 



S54 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Cii. 

What good 's in thy bad wines, what harm 's in thy good, 
That you bid them to flow in so mingled a flood ? 
For us 'tis no matter : but murder such wine ! 
And taint the best blood of Campania's best vine ! 
Thy guests in their graves might deserve all to lie : 
But a pipe of such good wine deserves not to die. 

The last half of the fifth and the sixth line of Martial's epigram 
are chosen for the motto of the 131st number of the Tatler, which is an 
amusing paper on the adulteration of wine, and the manufacture of 
foreign wines from English ingredients, prevalent in the year 1710. 



XLL 

PRESENTATION CUPS. 



Hsec cape, Donne, mei duo pocula pignus amoris, 

Et pone ante tuos qualiacunque lares. 
Tu mihi das vires, tu erudi vulneris iram 

Unus amieitia fallis, et arte levas ; 
Ssepe bibas memor, oro, mei ; multosque per annos 

Quam mihi das segro, sit tibi, amice, Salus. 

Accept, dear Donne, two cups as a testimony of my 
affection, and, such as they are, place them before your 
Lares. To you I owe the renovation of my strength. 
The acute wound that I received has been healed by your 
skill, and mitigated by your friendship. May you often 
drink out of these cups, and as often think upon me. And 
may you enjoy for many years, what you have restored to 
me — Health. 

Anstey, the author of the Bath Guide, had met with an accident by 
falling over a box in his study : he was attended by his friend Dr Donne, 
an eminent physician of Bath, who declined any pecuniary compensa- 
tion. Anstey thought it only a fair exchange to give the doctor cups for 
phials, and a dose of poetry for medicine. 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. . 355 

XLIL 

ANCIENT LAMP. 

Sperne dilectum Veneris saeellum, 
Sanetius, Lampas, tibi munus orno ; 
I, fove casto vigil Harleanas 

Igne Camoenas. 

This lamp which Prior to his Harley gave, 
Brought from the altar of the Cyprian Dame, 

Indulgent Time, through future ages save. 
Before the Muse to burn with purer flame ! 



XLIII. 
BELLS. 

(A) 
Laudo Deum verum, plebem voeo, congrego clerum, 
Defunetos ploro, pestem fugo, festa deeoro. 

Men's death I tell 
By doleful knell ; 
The sleepy head 
I raise from bed ; 
Lightning and Thunder 
I break asunder ; 
The winds so fierce 
I do disperse ; 
On Sabbath all 
To Church I call. 

(B) 

Dudum fundabar : Bowhell campana vocabar, 
Sexta sonat, his sexta sonat, ter tertia pulsat. 

23—2 



356 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

I was founded long ago ; I am called Bowhell. I chime 
at six and twelve o'clock; I strike at nine. 

The date of this inscription is a.d. 1515. It is noticed in Stowe's 
purvey. The first distich is from Spelman's Glossary, Art. Campana. 
The English is from Brand's Popular Antiquities, in which book will be 
found numerous Latin distichs, expressing a variety of vulgar errors and 
superstitions, such as the eleventh wave, ear-tingling, cats sneezing, dogs 
rolling, or howling. 

Latin poetical inscriptions on bells are scarce; but Latin poetical 
descriptions are more common; as a long poem on the great Tom of 
Oxford in the Musce Anglicance, and two epigrams on bells by Vincent 
Bourne, one on the Christ-church Tom, and the other on the Westminster 
Tom ; which latter was removed from St Peter's at Westminster, to St 
Paul's, where it got broken ; a circumstance which sharpens the poet's 
wit, who accused the bell of a popish heart, in preferring Peter to Paul. 
It may be mentioned, by the way, that Vincent Bourne has a poem on a 
presentation cup, which, in his day, belonged to Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, and which was called Pauper Johannes, from an inscription it 
bore : 

Pauper Johannes, dictus cognomine Clarkson 
Hunc cyathum dono, gratuitoque dedit. 

The author was a Fellow, and afterwards Auditor of Trinity College, 
but could never gather any tradition concerning Pauper Johannes, or his 
lost cup. The inscription on a bell at Fulboum, of the date a.d. 1776, is, 

I to the church the living call — 
And to the grave I summon all. 

On a bell at Chertsey is an inscription, Ora mente pia pro nobis Virgo 
Maria! The present occasion does not admit of examining a vulgar 
error concerning persons born within the sound of Bow-bells; or the 
tradition regarding that most prophetic of all bells, which vaticinated to 
Whittington, as he sat on the stone which is now the site of his beautiful 
alms-houses ; or of investigating the nature of Grandsire Peels and Bob- 
royals: but it may be permitted to quote Southey's description of the 
music of bells. " It is a music hallowed by all circumstances, which 
according equally with social exultation, and with solitary pensiveness, 
though it fall upon many an unheeding ear, never fails to find some 
hearts which it exhilarates, and some which it softens." 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 857 



XLIV. 

DIAMOND HEART, 

PRESENTED BY MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS TO QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

(A) 

Quod te jampridem fruitur, videt, ac amet absens, 
Hsec pignus Cordis gemma, et imago mei est. 

Non est candidior, non est base purior illo : 
Quamvis dura magis, non mage firma tamen. 

This gem behold, the emblem of my heart, 
From which my Cousin's image ne'er shall part. 
Clear in its lustre, spotless does it shine. 
As clear, as spotless, is this heart of mine. 
What, though the stone a harder substance be. 
It is not firmer than my heart to thee. 

(B) 

Hoc tibi quae misit Cor, nil quod posset, habebat, 

Carius esse sibi, gratius esse tibi. 
Quod si forte tuum Ipsa remiseris. Ilia putabit 

Carius esse sibi, quam fuit ante tibi. 

Queen Mary has presented you with a gift, which, of 
all her jewels, was the most precious in her eyes, and which 
she deemed might be the most gratifying to yours : If, per- 
chance, you should send, in return, your own heart to her, 
it will be a dearer treasure to her than ever it could have 
been to yourself. 

These ingenious conceits were written by Buchanan. He wrote a 
longer poem on the same subject, of which the following lines may be 
quoted as an example of the futility of human anticipations : 

O si fors mihi faxit, utriusque 
Nectam ut corda adamantina catena, 
Quam nee suspicio, aemulatiove, 
Livorve, aut odium, aut senecta solvat ! 
Tam beatior omnibus lapillis, 
Tam sim clarior omnibus lapillis, 



358 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Tarn sim carior omnibus lapillis, 
Quam sum durior omnibus lapillis. 

"O may it be my lot to unite the hearts of both Queens by an 
adamantine chain, not to be loosened by suspicion, or rivalry, or jealousy, 
or hatred, or old age ! Thus I shall become the happiest of stones, the 
most famous of stones, the dearest of stones, just as I am already the 
hardest of stones." This diamond heart, and inscription, may remind the 
reader of the cornelian heart which was found suspended round the neck 
of Hampden when he was fatally wounded, bearing the inscription : 

Against my king I never fight, 

But for my king, and country's right. 



XLV. 

SATURNALIAN PRESENTS. 
(A) 

P^NULA SCORTEA. 

Ingrediare viam ccelo licet usque sereno, 
Ad subitas nusquam scortea desit aquas. 

A LEATHERN ROMAN TrAVELLING-CoAT. 

Though you set out on your journey with a clear sky, 
take your pcenula with you as a safeguard against sudden 
showers. 

(B) 

Dentifrioium. 

Quid mecum est tibi ? me puella sumat, 
Emptos non soleo polire dentes. 

A Dentifrice. 

What have you to do with me ? I am made for dam- 
sels: it is no part of my business to polish purchased 
teeth. 



v.] , INSCRIPTIONS. 359 

(C) 

PUGILLAEES EbURNEI. 

Languida ne tristes obscurent lumina ceraB, 
Nigra tibi niveum litera pingat ebur. 

Ivory Writing-Tablets. 
Lest writing on waxen tablets should strain your weak 
eyes, let the black letters shew conspicuously on white 
ivory. 

(D) 
Annulus Pronubus Purus. 

Pignus habes fidei nuUis violabile gemmis, 
Hoc illud vetus est, Aurea Simplicitas. 

A Plain Marriage-Ring. 

You have here a pledge of constancy unalloyed by any 
glittering jewels : this is a specimen of what the ancients 
called Golden Simplicity. 

The first three of these inscriptions are from Martial, who wrote 
upwards of a hundred similar ones in reference to nearly every object in 
domestic use among the Romans. It would seem that these verses were 
attached to presents given during the Saturnalia, for visitors to take 
home with them, like the ornaments attached to modern German trees, 
only sometimes of a larger, or of a more costly description : they were 
adapted with reference to the station, fortune, sex, and age of the 
recipients. As observed by Dr Malkin, in his Classical Disquisition on 
ancient Toothpicks, Martial, in his verses upon Satumalian presents, affords 
the richest mine of Roman antiquities to be found in the Classic Authors. 
The Saturnalian festivities are in themselves a subject of very inter- 
esting inquiry. The last of the inscriptions is taken from a numerous 
collection of distichs by Grotius, in imitation of Martial's verses on the 
Satumalian presents. 

It is not proposed, on the present occasion, to illustrate particularly 
Roman philosophical or other opinions, Roman customs and manners, 
or Roman antiquities. But it may be cursorily observed concerning the 
particular articles described in the above verses, that the Author of the 
Pursuits of Literatt(,re notices that the Greek word used in reference to 
Paul's cloak which he left behind him at Troas, is evidently a corrup- 
tion of the Latin word pcenula, a kind of cloak, which was specifically a 



S60 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Roman garment, and worn only by Romans ; and, moreover, (as appears 
by the above verses), a vestment usually worn by them on a journey. 
Martial has a great number of clever remarks on the eccentricities of 
his neighbours in regard to their upper garments. He mentions, for 
example, a rich man who changed his banqueting-garment (synthesis) 
eleven times during one supper, on account of heat and perspiration, 
whereas the poet himself found that a single synthesis, which was all he 
possessed, was an admirable refrigerant. With regard to the Dentifrice, 
Martial frequently alludes to false teeth, false hair, hair-dye, converting 
a crow intd' a swan, but which would not deceive Proserpine, rouge 
for the cheeks, with its accidents from rain or sunshine. Martial makes 
a gallant present to a lady of a hair from a northern head, in order 
that by comparison she might perceive how much more yellow her 
own was. With regard to writing-tables, those of citron and ivory- 
were presents only for the opulent. There is a very curious poetical 
advertisement, by Propertius, on the loss of his tablets. Whether from 
a parsimonious motive or not, he represents that they were of Httle 
value except to the owner, being made of wax set in vulgar box-wood. 
He concludes : 

I, puer, et citus hsec aliqua propone columna : 
Et Dominum Esquiliis scribe habitare tuum. 

Go, boy, and stick this affiche on the nearest column, and write 
that your master's house is on the Esquiline Hill. 

As to modern Inscriptions on rings, they seldom swell to the size 
even of a single entire verse. The rings of Serjeants at Law afford a 
familiar example of Latin inscriptions on such works of art. The English 
inscriptions on the toasting-gl asses of the Kit-Cat Club have not, it 
is beUeved, any precise prototype in antiquity. 

The following old English verses on a wedding-ring are from 
Davison's Poetical Rhapsody. 

If you would know the love which I you bear. 
Compare it to the ring which your fair hand 
Shall make more precious, when you shall it wear: 

So my Love's nature you shall understand. 
Is it of metal pure? so you shall prove 

My Love, which ne'er disloyal thought did stain. 
Hath it no end? so endless is my Love, 

Unless you it destroy with your disdain. 
Doth it the purer grow the more 'tis tried? 
So doth my love; yet herein they dissent. 
That whereas gold the more 'tis purified 

By growing less, doth shew some part is spent; 
My love doth grow more pure by your more trying. 
And yet increaseth in the purifying. 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 361 

XLVI. 

HERALDIC ARMS OF THE ABBOT OF RAMSEY. 

Cujus signa gero, dux gregis est, ut ego. 

As I am the leader of a flock, so is he whose arms I 
denote. 

This Latin verse was inscribed round the arms of the Abbot of 
Ramsey, which arms were a ram in the sea. It is an example given by 
Camden, in a learned essay " On the Antiquity, Variety, and Reason of 
Motts in England." A more pleasing though less curious example of a 
Mott occurs in Chaucer's description of his Prioress : 

Of small coral about her arme she bare, 
A paire of beads, gawded all with green ; 
And theare on hung a branch of gold full shene, 
On which there was written a crowned A, 
And after that {Amor vincit omnia.) 

The puns in the mottoes of noble names form a curious collection ; 
as, " Forte scutum salus ducum." " Ne vile velis." " Templa quam 
dilecta." " Ne vile fano." " Festina lente." " Ver non semper viret." 
" At spes non fractse." " Fare, fac." " Manus justa, nardus ; '* and 
the like. 



XLVII. 

THE LION'S HEAD AT BUTTON'S. 

Servantur magnis isti cervicibus ungues : 
Non nisi delecta pascitur ille fera. 

Bring here nice morceaus ; be it understood 
The Lion vindicates his choicest food. 

The Latin is from Martial ; the translation is from the Gentleman's 
Magazine. The Lion's Head at Button's Coffee-house was a carving, with 
an orifice at the mouth, through which communications for the Guar- 
dian were thrown. This Latin distich was inscribed underneath it. 
Button had been a servant in the Countess of Warwick's family, and. 



362 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

by the patronage of Addison, kept his Coflfee-house, so famous in the 
annals of English literature, on the south side of Russell-street, two 
doors from Covent Garden. The " Lion's Head " was afterwards trans- 
ferred to the Shakspere Tavern, where it was sold by auction for 
£17. 10s. in the year 1804. It was made a subject for witticisms in six 
papers of the Guardian, in the course of which it is not forgotten that 
Button's christian name was Daniel; and it is observed that it was a 
frequent caution in families, " I'll tell the Lion of you." 



XLVIII. 

MEDALS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

(A) 
Ditior in toto non alter circulus orbe. 
There is not a richer circle in the whole word. 

(B) 

Felices Arabes, mundi quibus unica Phoenix 
Phoenicem reparat depereundo novam. 

O miseros Anglos, mundi quibus unica Phoenix 
Ultima fit nostro, tristia fata ! solo. 

Happy Arabians, to whom the only Phoenix in the 
world recreates a new Phoenix by its death ! O unhappy 
English, to whom the only Phoenix in the world becomes 
the last of her race in our Country ! 

The first motto surrounds the Queen's Head, and seems to have 
reference to her Majesty's conventional reputation for beauty. The 
second motto is on the reverse side of a different medal, bearing the 
image of a Phoenix, over which is the monogram of the Queen, E. R. 
surmounted by a crown. The most popular motto on any of Queen 
EHzabeth's medals, is that on a medal struck in Holland to commemo- 
rate the destruction of the Armada, erroneously mentioned in the Spec- 
tator as an English medal. It is Flavit Deus, et dissipati sunt ; " The 
breath of the Lord went forth, and they were scattered." On the 
reverse is a church upon a rock beat by waves, having a motto, AUidor 
non Icedor ; " I am rubbed, not hurt." 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 363 

XLIX. 

MEDAL ON JAMES II. AND HIS QITEEN. 

O divini ambo, si quid mea carmina possunt, 
Nulla dies unquam memori vos eximet a?vo ; 
Dum tua, Bancho ! domus, Capitoli immobile saxum 
Edini, imperiumque Pater Stuartus habebit. 

O divine pair ! if my songs can ought avail, no day 
shall withdraw you from the remembrance of ages ; whilst 
endures thy house, Bancho ! and the immoveable rock of 
Edinburgh Castle ; and whilst a Stuart is our Father, and 
our King. 

The verses fill up the reverse of the medal, on the obverse of which 
are the faces of the King and Queen. Under the verses are the letters 
A. P. for Archibald Pitcairn, the celebrated physician and Jacobite 
poet, who is mentioned in a preceding chapter in connexion with a 
ghost. There does not appear to have been any complete Latin verse 
upon our coins, though there are several long-winded Latin legends, as 
the remarkable one on our gold Nobles, Jesus autem transiens per medium 
illorwm ibat ; that on the exurgat money of Charles I. ; his Relig. Prot, 
Leg. Ang. Liber Pari. ; and on the reverse of Simon's crowns of Crom- 
well, Has Nisi Periturus Mihi Adimat Nemo. One of the most curious 
legends on a coin is that on Simon's Petition Crown, upon the edge 
of which is inscribed, in two lines, with two linked C's and two branches 
of palm, Thomas Simon most humbly prays your Majesty to compare this 
Tryal-Piece luith the Dutch, and, if more truly drawn and embossed, more 
gracefully ordered, and more accurately engraven, to relieve him. The ob- 
verse of the Commonwealth coins was a shield bearing the cross of St 
George, and the legend, " The Commonwealth of England." The reverse 
was two shields, one bearing the cross of St George, and the other a Lyre, 
with the legend, " God with us." It was a jest of the Cavaliers that God 
and the Commonwealth were on opposite sides : the double shield on the 
reverse was also prolific of jokes. The coin is thus described : 

Csesaris efl&gies nulla est, sed imaginis expers, 
^ Crux duplex super est dira, gemensque lyra. 



364 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 



INSCRIPTIONS AT THE ENTERTAINMENT GIVEN BY THE 

JESUITS AT ROME IN THEIR SEMINARY TO THE 

ENGLISH AMBASSADOR OF JAMES II. 

(A) 

Under King James's Picture. 

Eestituit veterem tibi Eeligionis honorem 
Anglia, Magnanimi Regis aperta fides. 

The open zeal of this Magnanimous King has restored 
to England the honour of its ancient Religion. 

(B) 

Under the Device of a Lily from whose leaves there distilled some drops 
of water (according to a vulgar error that such drops became the 
seeds of new Lilies), was a motto Lachrimor in Prolem; "I weep for 
children/' and the following distich : 

Pro natis, Jacobe, gemis, Flos candide Regum ? 
Hos, natura, tibi si neget, astra dabunt. 

Dost thou sigh for children, O James ! thou candid 
Flower of Kings? If Nature deny, Heaven will grant 
them. 

These Inscriptions are taken from the Memoirs of Dr Welwood, phy- 
sician to King WilHam III. They are part of the description of the Earl of 
Castlemain's reception (King James's Ambassador) by the Jesuits in their 
Seminary at Rome. Dr Welwood writes that the Jesuits " exhausted all 
their stores of sculpture, painting, poetry, and rhetoric," on the occasion. 
These Inscriptions maybe thought an important and agreeable illustration 
of the remarks of Burnet and his annotators. Mackintosh, Plumer Ward, 
Walter Scott, and Macaulay, concerning the legitimacy of the Pretender. 
Of a similar tenor with the Inscriptions in the text was the report spread 
by Catholic writers, that the Queen's pregnancy was occasioned by the 
Angel of the Lord having moved the Bath Waters, like, as ancien%, the 
Pool of Bethesda. The Queen herself attributed it to the special inter- 
vention of St Xavier, according to Dryden's dedicatory letter to Her 
Majesty, in which the following passage occurs : " I know not. Madam, 
whether I may presume to tell the world that your Majesty has chosen 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 365 

this great Saint for one of your celestial patrons, though I am sure you 
never will be ashamed of owning so glorious an Intercessor ; not even in a 
country where the doctrine of the holy Church is questioned, and those 
religious addresses ridiculed. Your Majesty, I doubt not, has the inward 
satisfaction of knowing, that such pious prayers have not been unprofitable 
to you ; and the nation may one day come to understand, how happy it 
will be for them to have a Son of Prayers ruling over them." In the 
Britannia Eediviva, that singular poem, which combines the highest 
powers of expression of which the English language is susceptible, with 
the basest sycophancy which can be offered to a human being, and the 
most irreverent blasphemy with which the Deity can be outraged, Dryden 
thus addresses the Pretender in his Cradle : 

Hail, Son of Prayers ! by holy violence 

Drawn down from Heaven, but long be banish'd thence ! 

And late to thy paternal skies retire ! 

Dryden's motto to his Britannia Bediviva is from Virg-il : 
Dii patrii indigetes, et, Romule, Vestaque Mater, 
Quae Tuscum Tyberim, et Romana palatia servas, 
Hunc saltem everso puerum succurrere saeclo 
Ne prohibete ! satis jampridem sanguine nostro 
Laomedonteee luimus perjuria gentis. 

Ye guardian Gods of Rome, our pra/r, 
And Romulus, and thou chaste Vesta, hear! 
Ye who preserve with your propitious powers 
Etnu-ian Tiber, and the Roman towers ! 
At least permit this Youth to save the world 
(Our only refuge) in confusion hurl'd : 
Let streams of blood already spilt atone 
For perjuries of false Laomedon ! 

The words puerum and perjitria are placed in Italics by Dryden. 
Walter Scott, in his preface to this poem, mentions that the practice of 
drawing attention to particular words by placing them in Italics began in 
the reign of Charles II., and was first introduced by L'Estrange in his 
Observator, who employed for the purpose not merely Italics, but all 
kinds of characters. The expression in the third line, Hunc saltem everso 
puerum, was often employed on medals as a legend round the head of 
the Pretender. The last line, Laomedonteaj luimus perjuria gentis, is 
applied by Mr Fox, in his History, as it was, probably, intended by Dryden, 
to the perjuries of Oates on the trials for the Popish Plot. The translation 
from Virgil's Georgics is by Warton : it is remarkable that in Dryden's very 
spirited, often very harmonious, very lax, and sometimes disgustingly fa- 
miliar translation of Virgil's Works, both the Youth and the Perjuries are 
lost sight of, notwithstanding the stress he lays upon them in the above 
motto to bis Britannia Rediviva. 



S66 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. 

Even the last direct Descendant of the Abdicator, in a medal struck 
upon his Father's death, impotently reiterates the ravings of his family in 
their claim of Divine Eight : it bears the device of a Cardinal's Cap, and a 
figure of Faith holding a Cross. Its inscription is, Henricus Nonus An- 
glise Rex, Gratia Dei, sed non voluntate Hominum ; " Henry the Ninth, 
King of England by the Grace of God, but not by the Will of Man." 

The Medals relative to the birth of the Pretender form a curious 
chapter in our Medallic History. In one Jacobite medal there is an 
Infant in a cradle killing a serpent, with a motto, Monstris dant funera 
Cunse, " His cradle gives death to monsters." On the reverse, is a Crest 
of three Plumes, with a motto, Fulta tribus metuenda Corona, " A Crown 
supported by three (feathers or kingdoms) is to be dreaded." A medal, 
designed by a friend of the Revolution, on the other hand, represents a 
small edifice, in which is placed a baby, with a crown on its head, and 
holding a chalice of Popery : there is a Jesuit beneath supporting the 
baby on a cushion : a figure of Truth, treading on a serpent, opens the 
door of the edifice, and detects the Jesuit. The motto is. Sic non hseredes 
decerunt, "With these arts there will be no want of an heir." Another 
medal represents a withering rosier, and a young stem growing from its 
root, with a motto, Tamen nascatur oportet, " An Heir must be born, not- 
withstanding." This device is varied in another medal, by a rose-bush 
bearing two decayed flowers, and, at a distance from them, a single bud. 
Another medal represents a Female opening a pannier, out of which springs 
a child having a dragon's tail : another female is holding up her hands in 
astonishment : the motto is, Infantemque vident, apporrectumque Draco- 
nem, " They behold a Child, and an extended Dragon." Another medal 
represents the Trojan Horse, with Troy (which it has been seen, in a 
former chapter, was often used to designate London) in flames : there is a 
motto on the horse's side-cloth, Equo ne crede, Britanne! "Briton, be- 
ware the Horse !" Another medal represents an eaglet cast away from an 
eagle, with mottos, Non patitur supposititios, and, Rejicit indignum, " It 
will not brook the supposititious — It rejects the unworthy one." 

In an ingenious publication lately set on foot, entitled Notes and 
Queries, is a query, by Mr Nightingale, concerning a Lobster introduced in 
a medal in his possession relative to the Pretender's birth. It represents 
a ship of war bearing a French flag : on the shore is a figure in the dress 
of a Jesuit (supposed to represent Father Petre) seated astride oi a, Lobster, 
and holding in his arms an infant who has a httle windmill on his head. 
The Legend is. Aliens, mon Prince, nous sommes en bon chemin. On the 
Reverse is a shield, charged with a windmill, and surmounted by a Jesuit's 
bonnet : two rows of beads or rosaries form a collar, within which is in- 
scribed, Hony soit qui non y pense. A Lobster is suspended from the 
collar as a badge. The Legend is, Les Armes et Tordre du pretendu 
Prince de Galles. Mr Nightingale adds, that the Lobster has bafiled all 
commentators and collectors of Medals. He notices that Van Loon, in 
his Histoire Metallique des Pays Bas, gives the Lobster, in his plate of the 



v.] INSCRIPTIONS. 367 

medal, correctly; but that his legend is, Hony soit qui hon y pense. 
Mr Nightingale writes that the medal in his possession is in excellent 
preservation, as if fresh from the Mint. The Windmill has reference 
to a current story at the time, that the supposititious Prince of Wales was 
really the child of a miller. It was remarked as a suspicious circum- 
stance, that the Baby-Prince was fed with a spoon instead of being 
suckled. The Nuncio wrote to his Court that there was given to the 
"Principino un alimento chiamato Watter-Gruell." 

The following letter addressed to the Englishman, will shew how 
that in the time of Queen Anne, the connexion between Popery and the 
cause of the Pretender, which, we have seen, began when he was en 
ventre sa mere, continued to be the predominating objection to the House 
of Stuart in the eyes of the vulgar ; and that the populace of London 
appear to have entertained the same dislike for Papal intervention with 
English politics by which they are animated in the present day. 

"Sir, 

" I wish you joy of the account which I am now about to give 
you of the burning the Effigy of the Pretender to her Majesty's domi- 
nions. The good subjects who took upon them to direct and perform 
this, chose very justly the night of that happy day which is the anni- 
versary of the birth of their Queen. The joy of her majest/s reco- 
very much contributed to the diversion and the solemnity, which was 
performed after the following manner: There were twelve persons 
bearing streamers, two larger than the rest, inscribed, * Long live Queen 
Anne:' ten others with streamers, inscribed, 'God bless Queen Anne, 
the Church of England, and the House of Hannover,' preceded a cart 
wherein were placed three large figures seated together, as tall as 
men; the person in the middle representing the Pope, on his right 
hand the Familiar which presides in his councils, and on his left the 
Pretender. 

"This elevated machine was visible to all the people from their 
dwellings on each side the streets, by the attendance of five hundred 
torches and links at its first setting out from Charing- Cross ; from 
whence the solemnity began, and moved forward with great order 
through Pall-Mali, St James's-Street, Piccadilly, Gerrard- Street, Holborn, 
Newgate- Street, Cheapside, and Cornhill: whence it faced about, and 
having gathered together a crowd of a much more wealthy and warm 
dress than those of the other end of the town, the acclamations of 
joy and triumph began to ring by the joint voice of all the people. 
The mixed cries were, ' God save Queen Anne,' * Preserve the Protestant 
Succession,' * No Popery,' * No Pretender.* I can assure you, Sir, my 
heart leaped within me, and methought my money chinked in my 
pocket, for joy of the safety of the rest I have in the funds. I could 
not forbear taking coach, and passing through the cross streets, to 
observe how the solemnity was received. 



368 GEMS OF LATIN POETRY. [Ch. V. 

" It was very visible at several parts of the town, that there were 
many hundreds of volunteer links brought into this Protestant illu- 
mination by honest fellows, who were not worth the price of much 
more than what they brought in their hands. It is certain that the 
common sense of the nation is against the Pretender; and there is no 
man able to do him considerable service, but by concealing his being 
for him. But all hearts begin to open in England ; and when Perkin 
was brought, attended by his proper associates, to the place of conflagra- 
tion, after having been drawn thrice round a magnificent bonfire, he was 
put into the flames with the general acclamation of the multitude, 
which was unspeakably large. This raising the sentiments of the people 
to attend their danger, by mechanic means that strike their sight, very 
well deserves the thanks of every true Englishman to those who are 
at the expence of it, and merits a commemoration in your Paper. 

" I am, Sir, your humble Servant, 

" CiVIS LONBINENSIS.** 



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Trinity, and St. John's Colleges, compiled and arranged in Chronological 
order. By T. A. "Walmisley, M.A., Professor of Music in the University 
of Cambridge. 8vo. 5s. 



Architectural Notes on German Churches ; with Notes 

written during an Architectural Tour in Picardy and Normandy. By "W. 
Whewell, D.D., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Third Edition. To 
which is added. Translation of Notes on Churches of the Rhine, by M. F. De 
Lassaulx, Architectural Inspector to the King of Prussia. Plates. 8vo. 12s, 



Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages, especially 
in Italy. By R,. Willis, M.A., Jacksonian Professor of the University of 
Cambridge. Plates, large paper. Royal 8vo. U. Is. 



>/i£fcDS of tit (JDoUcQes antr otfier public ^uilliinas 

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 

Taken expressly for the University Almanack, {measuring 
about 17 inches by \\ inches'). 



No.Year. SUBJECT. 

1—1801 TRINITY COLLEGE-West Front of Library. 

2—1802 KING'S COLLEGE and CHAPEL— West Front, and Clare Hall. 

3—1803 St. JOHN'S COLLEGE— Bridge and West Front. 

4—1804 QUEENS' COLLEGE— taken from the Mill. 

5—1805 JESUS COLLEGE— taken from the Road. 

6-1806 EMMANUEL COLLEGE— West Front. 

7—1807 PEMBROKE COLLEGE— West Front. 

8—1808 TRINITY HALL— taken from Clare Hall Garden. 

9—1809 SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE -taken from Bowling Green. 
10—1810 CHRIST'S COLLEGE— taken from the Garden. 
11—1811 CAIUS COLLEGE— Second Court. 
12—1812 DOWNING COLLEGE— Master's Lodge. 
13—1813 St. PETER'S COLLEGE— taken from the Street. 
14—1814 CATHARINE HALL— Interior of Court. 
15—1815 CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE— Interior of Old Court. 
16—1816 MAGDALENE COLLEGE— Front of Pepvsian Library. 
17-1817 SENATE-HOUSE and UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 
18—1818 TRINITY COLLEGE— Great Court. 
19—1819 St. JOHN'S COLLEGE— Second Court. 
20-1820 MAGDALENE COLLEGE— First Court. 
21—1821 EMMANUEL COLLEGE— First Court. 
22—1822 KINGS COLLEGE— Old Building. 
23—1823 JESUS COLLEGE— taken from the Close. 
24—1824 QUEENS' COLLEGE— taken from the Grove. 
25—1825 OBSERVATORY. 

All the Views as above, from Nos. 1 to 25 inclusive, — 
Price, Plain Impressions, 2s. Qd. — Proofs, 5s. 
26—1826 CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE-West Front, New Building. 
27—1827 TRINITY COLLEGE-Interior of King's Court. 
28—1828 St. PETER'S COLLEGE -Gisborne's Court. 
29—1829 KING'S COLLEGE NEW BUILDINGS and CHAPEL— taken from 

the Street. 
30—1830 St. JOHN'S COLLEGE— New Building. 

31—1831 TRINITY COLLEGE-West Front of King's Court and Library. 
32—1832 CHRIST'S COLLEGE— New Buildings. 
33—1833 KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL- Between the Roofs. 
34_1834 PITT PRESS. 

35—1835 SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE— taken from an Elevation. 
36—1836 KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, &c.— West Front. 
37—1837 St. JOHN'S COLLEGE— New Bridge, &c. 
38—1838 FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM. 
39—1839 The NEW UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 

40—1840 CAMBRIDGE— from the top of St. John's College New Buildings, 
41—1841 CLARE HALL— from the Bridge. 

42—1842 FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM. Entrance Hall and Statue Gallery. 
43—1843 TRINITY COLLEGE. Interior of the Hall. 
44—1844 St. SEPULCHRE'S CHURCH, as restored by the Cambridge 

Camben Society. 
45—1845 CAIUS COLLEGE Gate of Honour. Senate-House and New 

Univehstty Library. 
46—1846 GREAT COURT OF TRINITY COLLEGE. 
47—1847 St. SEPULCHRE'S CHURCH— The Interior of. 

Nos. 26 to 47, inclusive . . . Plain Impressions .... 55. Od. 

Proofs Ss. dd. 

— on India Paper . . 12s. Qd, 
48-1848 THE INTERIOR OF THE SENATE-HOUSE. 

India Proofs.. 15s. — Plain Proofs.. 10s. 
49—1849 SENATE HOUSE AND GREAT SAINT MARY'S CHURCH. 

India Proofs.. 12s.— Plain Proofs.. 8s. 
50—1850 THE INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF JESUS COLLEGE. 

India Proofs.. 15s.— Plain Proofs .. \Qs. 6d. 
51—1851 THE ENTRANCE GATEWAY of St. JOHN'S COLLEGE. 



630 



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